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If, like me, you were lucky enough to catch KatieJane Garside when she was fronting Daisy Chainsaw then you witnessed one of the most genuinely unnerving performers of the 90s.
I recently caught her with her new project, Ruby Throat. Her stage presence is less child-like but even more striking, it left the jaded Seattle audience clearly ill at ease.
The music found on Ruby Throat's debut CD "The Ventriloquist" isn't quite that disturbing, but it's close.
Ruby Throat is made up of just two people: Garside and Chris Whittingham. Whittingham provides all of the music found here. And by "all of it" we are frequently just talking about incidental guitar. His six-string work is generally minimal, often country-tinged. Chris does an admirable job of echoing and commenting on KatieJane's vocalizations.
KatieJane's style of singing is a combination of melody, whispering, moaning, wailing.. wailing unto shrieking. Because of this "The Ventriloquist" both quiet and disqueiting. Her style seems to evoke something in her, as if she's possessed, as if she might lose control at any instant and break down in some fashion or another.
This makes for otherworldly music. Not in the sweet fairytale way that Kate Bush is otherworldly. No the otherworld invoked on this collection is dark, sinister. The photo of Garside found inside the CD shows her barely clothed (and her expression shows her barely there) raising from the water like a celtic swamp nymph. This album is the soundtrack for that moment
Recommended for listeners who like "un-easy listening".
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Ruby Throat-
http://rubythroat.co.uk/
http://www.myspace.com/katiejanegarsiderubythroat
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