Thursday 18 October 2012

The Kid Kapichi: Gin & Chronic album review

If you have followed us here at Indieed Kids at all, you’ll probably have the impression that we’re quite biased towards the local music scene, and you could well be right. The problem is, it’s just too damn good! Which admittedly we hadn’t really realised. Here we are again, reviewing The Kid Kapichi’s debut album Gin & Chronic this time. Still with barely a bad word to say.

The Kid Kapichi are a 4 piece indie rock band in the vein of the Arctic Monkeys and even The Black Keys, comprised of local talent; Jack Wilson, Ben Beetham, George Macdonald and Harrison Caruana. Perhaps the first thing that struck us whilst listening to Gin & Chronic was the sheer professionalism, everything from the stylish and tidy album art work, even the track listing scream polished enthusiasm and that’s before you’ve even taken the disk out. These aren’t just a few kids fucking about on guitars. They take themselves seriously, and so should you!

We’ve already made a comparison to the Arctic Monkeys and we weren’t joking, when we first chucked the album on, a friend walked in convinced we had found a rare Arctic Monkeys b-side. However after a couple of playthroughs we began to notice a hidden depth and influences from bands such as the Smiths (perhaps most evident in the lyrics) and even the odd solo, bringing back fond memories of listening to Hendrix as a kid. I guess while we are making a Hendrix comparison we should probably justify it, and believe us its easy enough - The Kid Kapichi will blow your mind! The riffs are catchy, the bass booms, and Macdonald takes the drums by storm, these guys are no doubt at the top of their game. Their album destroys the local opposition, and we cant believe they’re not signed already. You may be wondering why we have not touched on the vocals yet, but don’t worry we have plenty to say in a second.

About now we should probably start raving on about the lyrics. They’re flat out incredible. Telling tales of messy nights out, sexual exploits and the adventures of being a young adult, they perhaps don’t have the widest topical range but its something we can all relate to, and we’ll be damned if there aren’t some truly poetic moments in there. Maybe our favourite has to be found in the first verse of Inflated Sense Of Self Importance (“I get stressed, I’m an amateur/ my heart beats, iambic pentameter”) but that’s only one gem from within a vast pool to pull from. Of course the lyrics are only one side of the coin, what happens if you look at the flipside of things? The vocal presentation is extraordinary switching between gentle and restrained to rowdy and unrelenting. The singing compliments both the lyrics and the instruments perfectly.

As far as we can tell that just about brings our review of Gin & Chronic to a close. Before we head off though, we have just a few more things to mention. For one a huge round of applause to the guys who recorded, mixed and mastered the album, they’ve done a phenomenal job releasing one of the most professional and authentic sounding albums we’ve heard in a while. Unfortunately we haven’t had a chance to see the Kid Kapichi live yet, but don’t worry when we do we’re sure we will have plenty more to say about it. You can pick up Gin & Chronic just by getting into contact with them on their face book page with a £5 asking price. Its definitely worth it. http://www.facebook.com/TheKidKapichi

As if we haven’t said it enough they really are the “alpha males” of the Hastings music scene.