Katy Carr
Country of origin:
England
Type of music generally:
Evocative/eclectic alternative pop
Status:
Most recent release, Providence (2020)
See also:
Katy Carr's site
Comparisons:
She definitely comes from a similar place as Kate Bush does, and though her material is quite different from all of these, at times her voice reminds me of Eliza Carthy, Kristeen Young, Susan McKeown, and Laetitia Saedler of Stereolab
Covers/own material:
Own
General comments:
While I can't imagine Katy Carr could exist had not Kate Bush existed first, Katy Carr is no clone. Her world simply has that intelligent, sexy, slightly solipsistic feel that Kate Bush's has. It feels like she's the only one in the world who could possibly be making this particular, idiosyncratic music. Her voice winds around things. The lyrics are blunt but the songs so melodic the bluntness plays off it. This is both entertaining and playful—and gutsy and raw. There's a sense of both earthiness and the ethereal. (Neile)Katy Carr is wonderful. (stjarnell@yahoo.com)
Comments about live performance:
One of the best concerts of the year. I caught Katy Carr both last tuesday and again last night. One word...totally freaking amazing. (ok three words...)
Last Tuesday she alternated singing songs acapella and on keyboard—her stage presence closely matches miss kristeen Young (minus the podium)...last night she was playing on this weird keyboard that only plays one note at a time (she was constantly tuning/adjusting/distorting/feeding back through the thing during each song...The first song she performed by just playing the feedback and reverb being generated by the keyboard (and every song was in a minor key...)—at times her vocals were reminiscent of kristeen young, the next minute, susan mckeown.
passion play is bound to be spectacular if it comes even close to her live shows—"reddle woman" "spaceboy" and "borderline" were just gorgeous live... (10/03, gordoja@optonline.net)Opening act Katy Carr was impressive, a sort of Steeleye Span meets Tori Amos kind of show, accompanied by an acoustic guitarist and a violinist. Intriguing enough to make me buy the cd, anyway. (03/02, adamk@zoom.co.uk)
Recommended first album:
Coquette
Recordings:
- Screwing Lies (2000)
- Passion Play (2003)
- Coquette (2009)
- Paszport (2012)
- Polonia (2015) Providence (2020)
Screwing Lies
Release info:
2000—Madame De Luce—MDL117
Availability:
U.K.
Ecto priority:
Highly recommended
Group members:
Katy Carr—vocal, piano, Wurlitzer, keyboards
Guest artists:
Shimrit Atad—cell
David Okuniew—acoustic guitar, electric guitar, electric bass, drum machine
John Edwards—double bass
Paul Soden—drums
Robert Harbron—concertina, basson, flutes
Erik Leiglerschmidt—violin
Helen Davis—violin
Mia—violin
Brenan Lawless—viola
Produced by:
Katy Carr
Comments:
Gutsy singing, powerful songwriting, this is an edgy charmer of an album. What's not to love about songs with lovely strings and tunes and twining vocals that tell you "you're pushing my boundaries" and "screwing lies / wait till you fuck another then tell me those / screwing lies". (Neile)
Passion Play
Release info:
2003—Deluce Recordings—MDL 216
Availability:
U.K.
Ecto priority:
High recommended
Group members:
Katy Carr—vocals, piano, Wurlitzer, keyboards
Guest artists:
Jeremy Vass—drums, percussion, moog
David Okuniew—guitar, vocal
Oliver Parfitt—Wurlitzer, moog
Benjamin Nicholls—double bass
John Hegley—vocal
Manjit Singh Rasiya—tablas, tanpura
Isabel Schmitt—French horn
Calina Mare—violin
Dinah Beamish—cello
Stuart Bates—trombone
Craig Gogay—electric bass
Produced by:
Katy Carr
Comments:
Kate Bush has just finished writing "Wuthering Heights." She's walking home through Camden Town, in gloaming. She sees a drug deal go down in the corner, on the rain-slicked streets. A drag queen, drunk off her arse, stumbles down the stairs of her flat, and catches a cab, doubtlessly head to Soho. A couple is having an argument outside of a Fish and Chips shop. Kate is cold, and it's getting dark besides, so she walks a little faster, ignoring the wolfish stares of soccer blokes, and brazen strutting of the strumpets. She ducks into a small Mom and Pops record store, the kind where nothing is in alphabetical order and the bulletin board is overflowing with adverts for flatmates and bands looking for drummers. Over the sound system, the Satanic babble of a shrieking opera threads over bombastic gothic organ. She's intrigued, so she goes to boy behind the counter, who's all pierced and mohawked and a bit stinky, and asks him who's playing, and he says, "Diamanda Galas." She knows that this discovery is important, an epiphany. She will never be the same, as a million musical ideas begin to take root.
"Paper Castle" opens Katy Carr's second recording, sounding like an outtake from one of Kate's early recordings. A '70s style guitar, airy-fairy English schoolgirl vocals roam over a pleasant melody shimmering with Wurlitzer goodness. "Druggie" opens with the strains of a sitar, as Carr warbles about the joys of drug taking, the Incredible String Band hanging out with Ravi Shankar. "Alsation" mixes a mournful French Horn, drunken male backing vocals with the rogueishly erotic lyrics. "Spaceboy," "Borderline" and "Jellybean" cross-pollinates P.J. Harvey's rootspunk with Beth Orton's folktronica experiments. This central trilogy explore, in frank, colloquial terms, female sexuality and the war between the sexes. "Turpin," a tale of a highwayman, and the darkly mystical "Reddle Woman" honor the British folk tradition—bawdy tales and bloody ballads and all. (The disturbing "Reddle Woman" seems to describe some murderous sheela-na-gig persona).
Carr's voice is a bit thin, and chilly. It reminds one of Laetitia Saedler of Stereolab, and her icy detachment. It makes her observations and images all the more potent. It's a writerly voice. This surgically precision underscores the swampy subject matter. In one song, filled with S&M imagery, she sings, "snake kiss is so sexy and sweet, let me bite your neck and draw blood." They are words that manage to be whimsical, morbid and erotic at once. It underscores the themes described in this unusual album. (ethereal_lad@livejournal.com)Don't miss Katy Carr's excellent new album Passion Play. She goes folk-electronica and how. Quirky and wild. (stjarnell@yahoo.com)
Coquette
Release info:
2009—Deluce Recordings—MDL 315
Availability:
U.K.
Ecto priority:
Highly recommended
Group members:
Katy Carr—vocals, Collard, Collard upright piano, Yamaha, baby grand, Eavesraff pianette minipiano, other toys
Guest artists:
Nick Crofts—analogue synths, glockenspiel, Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer, piano, melodica, programming
Paul Stroud—string arrangements, conductor
Jon Cottle—cello, electric bass, string arrangements
Anja McCloskey—accordion
Geoffrey Lea—percussion, drums
Gavin Broom—trumpet
The Ivy String Quartet:
Natalee Jeremic—first violin
Felicity Broome-Skelton—second violin
Ruth Player—viola
Sarah Westley—cello
Produced by:
Nick Crofts
Comments:
it's an amazing album, and is Katy Carr's most fully realised album to date. From the stunning account of an escape from Auschwitz ("Kommandant's Car") to the rhythmic, flowing "Sparkle" this album is a tour de force. The songwriting and performances—especially Carr's vocals—shine here. The songs are incredible, her voice is great (ethereal and earthy both), and the whole album is powerful from the individual songs to the cumulative effect. Highly, highly recommended for anyone interested in alternative pop. (Neile)Such a wonderful quantum leap from her first two albums, with a joyfully eclectic display of influences, it's hard not to be cheered by it. The idea of music this quirky existing, and of someone having the courage to make it, can only feed the spark of hope.
I've always liked, if not exactly loved her music This album changed all that: there is just SOOO much going on here, it's a massive quantum leap on from her first two albums in terms of ambition and scope. This is on my list of top CDs for the year. Interesting trivia (or not): it was recorded in a bedroom studio opposite the Muswell Hill Odeon, a lovely 1930s cinema that I used to go to a lot when I lived in North London, it being one of the more charming cinemas (exhibits of old projectors, memorabilia, etc) around. (adamk@zoom.co.uk)It's even better than her first two and well worth the wait. (lotterose @ gmail . com)
Paszport
Release info:
2012—Deluce Recordings
Availability:
Europe and U.K.
Ecto priority:
Recommended
Group members:
Katy Carr—vocals, ukulele, piano, keyboards
Guest artists:
Francesca Ter-berg—cello
Jon Cottle—cello (2)
Nigel of Bermondsey—bass; additional vocals (9)
Guy Schalom—poyk, snare drum, cymbals, wood block, percussion
Paul Tkachenko—tuba, trombone, double bass, whistle
FLora Curzon—violin
Wojciech Wentura—opera singer (11); Polish soldiers (4); Polish partisan choir (16)
Produced by:
Katy Carr and Nigel of Bermondsey; Nick Crofts (2)
Comments:
Described on the CD as "an epic, poetic journey through Katy's past and that of her mother's nation, Poland, and pays homage to her muse Kazik Piechowski (b. 1919) and those who fought so hard for Poland's independence throughout WWII. This album explores themes of love, refugee status, loss of passport, country, resistance, hope again adversity and patriotism."A very interesting album, with a lot of compositions sounding as though they came from the era she's covering. I wouldn't say this is as essential as her earlier albums as it's a project with a very particular flavour, but it's still definitely intriguing and worth the listen. if you have a fondness for 40s-era music that may help. I'm not into listening to this kind of concept album often, but there are terrific songs here for the casual listener, too, which totally drew me in. (Neile)
Further info:
Email info@katycarr.com
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