PAN M 360 / TOP 100 : This Is The Kit – Careful Of Your Keepers

Over the past few weeks, our most active record reviewers have had the task of choosing their 5 favorite recordings of 2023, and here they are. This selection is unique and quite different of all you can find on the web or through traditional medias.

I discovered This Is The Kit in 2017, with Moonshine Freeze, her fourth album. Since then, This Is The Kit has always found itself in my personal lists of the twenty best annual albums, which I send to my friends, when the following albums have been released. I also listened to the previous three with happiness. This is The Kit is above all the band of the Brit Kate Stables, who lives in Paris, plays the mandolin and sings with a crystalline and convincing voice. Careful Of Your Keepers is the sixth offering from the Art-Folk, Antifolk, Pop Folk group. Jazz Folk. Choose your label. The other musicians are Rozi Plain (bass vocals) who herself has a solo career to follow, Neil Smith (guitar), Jamie Whitby-Coles (drums). Added is a brass section and some discreet electro effects. That’s all. But it’s impeccable sonic alchemy. Kate Staples has fun changing producers with each album. John Parish, PJ Harvey’s producer took charge of the first; Aaron Dressner of The National took care of the third. This time, it’s Gruff Rhys, leader of the iconoclastic group Super Furry Animals, who brilliantly performs Careful Of Your Keepers.

To see the complete list, click here!