By Phil Scarisbrick

Last year’s I Am Easy To Find by The National was the most collaborative of the band’s career. It followed the creation of PEOPLE by the band’s guitarist, Aaron Dessner, along with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon – a label that nurtures this approach to making music to often spellbinding results.

This year has seen a number of those that worked on that record release new music of their own. Eve Owen put out her debut album, Don’t Let The Ink Dry, while Josh Kaufman has worked on two projects – the excellent Bonny Light Horseman and Muzz records. This week, singer/songwriter, Kate Stables aka This Is The Kit, also announced the release of her new LP, Off Off On.

Produced by Kaufman, the record is preceeded by new single, This is What You Did. Described by Stables as ‘A bit of a panic attack song’, the track’s frenetic rhythm section intertwines with a finger-picked banjo to create the mayhem that the song’s subject matter conveys. As the track progresses, the layered vocals and guitar line become more and more off kilter to add to the mood as Stables sings, ‘This is what you get/this is what you did/this is what they want/Why are you still here?/This is what they said‘. The flitting between internal and external blame for the malaise our narrator finds themselves in only adds to the self-doubt and self-loathing that infect people in such negative spirals.

Released on 23rd October via Rough Trade, Off Off On is the follow up to 2017’s Moonshine Freeze.

If you’d like to support us by subscribing to our zine, click here – it’s just £6 a year for four copies (inc p&p).