Where It Lives

Editors’ Notes Although Where It Lives was released as a digital-only offering by the Bristol, England–based This Is the Kit, these songs were actually recorded by singer Kate Stables in her home without any accompaniment. But who needs a band when you can track mercurial three-part vocal harmonies as flawless as those on the bluesy, electric guitar–based “With Her Wheels Again”? Stables swaps the amplified six-string for acoustic arpeggios on the following folkie number, “We Need Our Knees,” where she sings one beautifully stark vocal track over nimble fingerpicking. Echoes of Vashti Bunyan emanate from “Two Wooden Spoons,” where Stables’ buttermilk-smooth inflections flow alongside more dexterous folk guitar playing. Although she's wonderful as a guitar player, there’s something even more magical when Stables picks up a banjo. Check out “Creeping Up Our Shins,” where that unmistakably traditional tone plucks and flutters around her quivering voice. It’s an uncanny pairing that resonates with an undeniably symbiotic chemistry. In “Do More Dancing,” she exercises more restraint on the banjo, letting her lilting vocal melodies carry the song.