Danish singer/songwriter Kat Boelskov describes herself as having no musical training whatsoever, impossible to define genre-wise and, despite having not played a single gig to date, has self-recorded her debut album ‘Amateur‘ in her small Copenhagen apartment.
Genre defying as she may be, there’s on obvious debt owed to the likes of Kate Bush and Tori Amos from the off in Boelskov‘s intense, creative vocal performances, which sound comfortable across a huge range. She seems stylistically fearless, lacing her compositions with wails and yelps and launching at one point into a quasi-scat vocal solo that comes ever so close to become absurd, but ends up being entirely in keeping with the tone of manic intensity that permeates this record.
This spirit of creativity finds its way into the production and arrangement of the songs too, but with slightly less consitency than in the aforementioned vocal adventures. Much of the album is wonderfully pitched, ideally arranged for a home recordist, with sparse, ambient arrangements that leave space for meandering vocals; tracks like ‘Peace‘ underpinned by a flexible fretless bassline and ‘Everything‘, with it’s sparse, dark groove and swinging, thumping tom-tom drumbeat provide the perfect foil for Boelskov’s voice, rarely sounding inhibited by the productional limitations of a self-recorded setup.
The same can’t be said for ‘Girls in Love‘, where a synthesised horn section creates an unfortunate feeling of the ambitions of the album over-reaching themselves somewhat and conjuring up the wrong sort of connotations implied by the album’s title. Then there are those other times where there are sounds on the record I’ve just never encountered before that, in their kookiness are unexpectedly enjoyable. ‘1 Thing u Should Know’; is backed by a completely bizarre quick-decay honky-tonk piano sound which, despite being unusual and surprising, seems to make sense with the song, and offers something that feels both original and worthwhile.
In all, ‘Amateur‘, if it’s intended to be judged on a level with commercially produced releases (which the blurb of Boelskov‘s website seems to indicate it is) is a little bit hit and miss, without the focus or coherence needed for this record to fully sustain the interest of the listener; something which this singer undoubtedly deserves. For each of those beautiful, stripped down moments, where she sounds at home and in control, there’s another where you can’t help but wish for the guiding hand of a Paul Epworth or even a Guy Chambers to make things sound bigger and better, and perhaps even encourage the odd big chorus, another thing that a part of me feels this album might be a little short on.
That said, one can’t help but think Kat Boelskov is a woman very much of her own mind, and that the idea of doing everything herself, even if she’s not that good at it is the whole point. Whatever the case, while this may not be a fully realised picture of the artist, there’s potential in spades, which I’m sure we’ll hear realised one way or another some time soon.
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The first of many contributions by new Cougar monsieur Shane Water
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