Late last year Kate Moth signed to the illustrious Scenic Drive Records label run by the legendary Australian music producer, audio engineer and musician, Wayne Connolly. You may have heard of Australian indie giants Josh Pyke, The Vines, Boy & Bear, Paul Dempsey, Youth Group, Underground Lovers, Died Pretty, Hoodoo Gurus and You Am I. They all received Connolly’s magic touch behind the production desk and his label include some Backseat Mafia regulars including The Nagging Doubts, Ellen Soffe, Victoria, Bec Sykes and Grids and Dots.
Listening to Kate Moth, I get a blast of nostalgia for the C86 era and the delicacy of bands like The Smiths, Prefab Sprout, Gene and fellow antipodeans The Go-Betweens and The Apartments. You get the picture (or should that be the sound?).
In their debut EP ‘No Key Sharp Enough’, Kate Moth have developed what these bands pioneered to some degree: a sound that is intelligent multi-layered pop filled with a delicious degree of unpredictability, prone to heading in unexpected directions and yet having a cohesive whole that positively shimmers like sunlight on the waves.
The EP’s unusual title comes from a lyric in ‘Run Generation’, reflecting the fear and freedom of realising your life is something you hold the keys to, while questioning whether there’s anything to unlock in the first place.
Opening track ‘(You’re Not A) Genius’ opens with quiet rippling guitars, an ambulant bass before launching into a coasting gently track with yearning vocals that recalls elements of Belle and Sebastian with its gentle pop demeanour and arch lyrics:
Someone tell me what I am,
A liar or just everybody’s man?
What happened to you,
You were so damn lucky before,
You picked a pattern and changed
Copy the news,
A symbol rearrange
And I can tell you one thing.
You’re not a genius
Not a genius,
Although you think you feel it
Not a genius,
Not a genius
‘Run Generation’ lives up to its name – a fast paced track that trots along with a jaunty bop and a soaring chorus while ‘Holly Go-Lightly’ has a more sparse and harder edge. Singer Matty Abelev’s vocal range is impressive – a melancholy edge, expressive and observant while the backing vocals are soft and gentle. The track ebbs and flows – drifting into a wafting detour at one point. Inspired by Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s, it’s a love song about finding someone who has read all the same books as you, while knowing the relationship has an ending
‘Too Late To Go Outside’ is built around a texture-first approach to post-punk, the song drifts through feelings of social withdrawal, winter isolation and nocturnal overthinking without collapsing into self-pity. Instead, there’s a restless momentum underneath it all. The guitars shimmer and pulse while the rhythm section keeps everything moving forward, creating a tension between melancholy and release that gives the track its emotional pull. It’s introspective music, but never static.
What makes kate moth particularly compelling is how naturally they balance hook-heavy indie songwriting with the sharper edges of post-punk. The song has a warmth that lingers long after it ends. It feels lived-in rather than overly polished, the sound of a band more interested in atmosphere and emotional honesty than chasing trends.
‘Heart Attack’ is built on a jingle jangle guitar foundation with a soft backing chorus and yearning vocals.
In final track ‘Overnight Sensation’ an ambulant powerful bass sets the scene before the gently soft vocals enter with shimmering guitars that splash and dance like rain drops with distant spoken backing vocals. According to the band the track is about finding your name on life’s waitlist instead of the guest list. A sentiment that captures the zeitgeist to some extent – the frustrations of youth in a society where unbreachable gaps continue to widen and generations are left in the wilderness, on the outside looking in. Accordingly, there is sense of urgency and melancholy in the delivery and the track ebbs and flows, finding different directions, shifting like a mirage.
This is really exciting stuff – yes it may have the genetic code of some of the aforementioned eighties indie pop bands but Kate Moth have made something of their own, and in the process released one of the most exciting releases this year.
The EP is out now and available through the link above and via all the usal download and streaming sites.
You can catch the band playing live – details below and tickets here.
