Ruby Throat - The Ventriloquist

1. Swan And The Minotaur
2. House Of Thieves
3. Naked Ruby
4. Salto Angel
5. Dear Daniel
6. The Ventriloquist
7. Lie To Me
8. Ghost Boy
9. John 3 16
10. Happy Now Part 2
11. Consuelas Newt
12. Boat Song

Anyone familiar with KatieJane Garside’s other musical projects may be a bit shocked by this latest incarnation. You aren’t going to find much of the grotesquery and violence associated with the darkly magical Queen Adreena here - instead this is an acoustic album of stripped down, haunting alt-folk songs. The only thing connecting the two is Garside’s distinctive sweet, brittle voice floating over the guitar parts provided by new collaborator, Chris Whittingham. The intention here seems to have been to strip away a lot of the onstage aggression and performance inherent in Queen Adreena’s live shows and to create an album of simple, melodic, almost sea-shanty like tunes that speak for themselves - and they’ve definitely succeeded.
Highlights include the sweetly lilting “House of Thieves”, with its wistful lyrics barely supressing a threatening undertone, which comes to the fore in the second verse and chorus. The song builds perfectly, getting to an emotional crescendo that most full bands don’t manage to reach. This just shows that Garside and her collaborators, although off the wall at times, know how to craft perfectly emotive and catchy songs, whether they are dark, brooding and verging on metal as are many of Queen Adreena’s tracks or soft, haunting and fragile like the material here.
“Consuelas Newt” has a more up-beat tempo, with the guitar creating a pounding, bluesy rhythmn leaving the melodic duties purely to the vocals. Garside theatrically squeals and heavy-breathes her way through the track, particularly relishing the plea inherent in the chorus; ‘I don’t want to die here, don’t want to die’. Again, the sound here is sparse and leaves the vocals amazingly isolated - and yet the versatility of both musicians creates a toe-tapping, if slightly creepy, alt-blues tune.
“Salto Angel” drifts in with haunting slide guitar, with Garside’s voice floating just above a whisper over the top. The vocals reach their highest pitch in the beautiful chorus, with the guitar sweepingly following the same pattern as the vocal line. Although I like the visceral nature of Queen Adreena’s louder songs, at times I think Garside’s natural vocal talent gets lost under the volume. On this album, and in this song in particular, her range and emotional depth are showcased nicely by the minimalistic music.
All in all then, this album highlights Garside’s versatility as an artist and, seemingly, her faultless knack for picking the best collaborators. Her meeting with Whittingham whilst he was busking on the London Underground was fortuitous, and the two together have created something quite special with this album...www.adequacy.net