Reviews

Artist: Kindred Spirit
Album:In The Doghouse(Sampler)
Label:Self Released
Tracks: 9(5)
Rating: ***
Contact:   http://www.myspace.com/kindredspiritukband

It's always harder to review an album from a sampler. There's all sorts of questions that you never have the answer to. Why a sampler ? Are the rest of the tracks on the album not as important? Are they as good? What's the filtering process that's been used to take out the other tracks? Sod it, treat it like a mini album.
Kindred Spirit have been releasing an album a year for the last few years. The band have a good songwriter in Elaine Samuels and have acquired a pretty good reputation for their live work. As attested to the fact the Ian Gillan saw one of the bnad's sets and invited fiddle player Sim, to appear on his next DVD and as part of his band at his recent Albert Hall appearance.
There is great musicianship in the band, beyond Sim, there is some great woodwind/brass via Annie Parker as well as the more traditional guitar, bass and drum thing. If you don't get the right quality of musicians for playing intricate folk rock, that occasionally drifts into progressive, the potential for it all to either collapse upon it's self, or disappear up it's own arse because it's just got pretentious is quite high. The trick is not just to know wat too little is, it's also to know when not to add more egg to the pudding.
Generally Kindred Spirit do a good job at that. The tracks, whilst long by modern standards don't fall into parody. Nor do you notice the length of the track. A sign that they've just about got things right. It does have a early seventies feel to, but this is well beyond the realms of pastiche or tribute band, Kindred Spirit have located their sound and given folk rock a contemporary feel.
Hand on heart, I don't think they've nailed the whole thing. There were a couple of places where it felt slightly staid, almost stuffy. You feel you know what they're aiming for, if they were on a stage they would probably hit the mark, but because they're in a studio they've stopped just short of where they want to be.
It's not something that impacts all of the songs, "Green Man" and "Morrigan" have a decidedly more freeflowing feel about them. I generally enjoyed the sampler. It has things going for it. I think Samuels is an excellent songwriter, but for me the sampler came up short of the mark.