Small Hours - Katharine [Vagary Records - 2012]“Katharine” is a single sided C20 tape that offers up one shot of ANW from this Uk project- which is one of the main projects of James Killick( Love Katy,Pooh, Blank Depths,etc). The tape is themed around US actress Katharine Ross, and in particular her role in 1969’s Paul Newman & Robert Redford fronted comedy/ action cowboy movie“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”. The release has a full colour cover & cassette labels taking in pictures of Ms Ross. The track opens with a minute or so of the song ‘raindrops keep falling on my head” taken from the movie, fairly soon a single loud LP like jumping texture appears as the song sample fades. Also as the sample fades a distant mass of crackling static can be heard, and this is briefly stopped & started by the LP like jump….so the whole thing rather reminds one a bit of the run out groove on a old vinyl record, with a little bit of extra distant static mixed in I’m afraid to say I found the whole thing rather underwhelming, predictable & more than a little dull. Killick does little with the rather unimaginative textures he's selected, and the loud vinyl jump was just plan annoying. So to sum “Katharine” is one of the least rewarding release I’ve heard from Mr Killick; who of late has being creating some impressive & inventive work with in the walled noise genre, but sadly this is neither impressive or inventive. Roger Batty
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