REVIEW: Kaia Kater “Strange Medicine”

Kaia Kater – Strange Medicine

Kaia Kater has a new album, Strange Medicine, due to be available on May 17 via Free Dirt Records.  This album is deeply engrossing musically.  And thematically it’s about struggling through abject darkness, often using historical references, to a place of balance.

Kaia named this album after her favorite Herbie Hancock quote:“the only way we can grow is to experience situations as they are. To take whatever situation we have and make something constructive with it—to turn poison into medicine.” These words resonate throughout the album, and, as Kaia says: “In this case, the bloodletting for me was to sort through my most raw feelings about colonialism, sexism, racism, and misogyny. I focused specifically on releasing emotions I’d previously kept frozen like anger and revenge. I eventually move into an authentic reclamation of myself through the characters in my songs—you could call it a catharsis of sorts.”

“The Witch” features vocals by Aoife O’Donovan opens the album and the dark, mysterious beat and the tables are turned on those who condemned a woman in a witch hunt: “I was a storm in a teacup /
Thickening the water, steeped in my anger / And you claimed to be the one to understand (don’t you understand?) /  You’re not a friend to me, just a stranger / Grinning like some sick entertainer / Is this the going trend? ”   “Maker Taker” follows as it showcases Kaia’s grooving plucked banjo style, influenced from the style of Steven Reich, in another woeful song about being fatigued and grieving.

“Mechanics of the Mind” the banjo is again delightful in a song about the guillotine and “Fédon” features Taj Mahal on vocals and again Kaia’s repetitive punctuating banjo: “Where’s the money? Oh I know you hide it well / in Haiti they hid poison in your meals.”  This song is a recounting of insurrectionist Julien Fédon leading a coup against plantation owners in Grenada (who were inspired by the Haitian revolution).

Allison Russell, fellow native Montrealian, sings with Kaia on “In Montreal” and the amazing banjo riff carries the melody through fiddle, mournfulness and vocals like the wind through the trees.  “You call yourself the living dead.”

This album runs cold and dark, but always truthful, with mysterious banjo and fiddle and themes of revenge for unspeakable wrongs – against women, people of color, and in shadowy moments in history, and right now. The music is compelling and takes your hand to lead you down the twisted pathways that lead to cathartic release.

Musicians on the album are Kaia Kater on vocals, banjo and guitar; Rob Moose (Bon Iver, Phoebe Bridgers) on strings; Phil Melanson (Andy Shauf) on drums; Robbie Kuster (Patrick Watson) on percussion; and  Aoife O’Donovan, Allison Russell and Taj Mahal on guest vocals; with arrangements by Franky Rousseau (Andrew Bird, Chris Thile) and Dominic Mecky.

The album was produced by Joe grass and Kaia Kater; mixed by Ryan Freeland of Stampede Origin; and mastered by Richard Addison of Trillium Sound Mastering.

Find the music here: https://lnk.to/kaia-kater-strange-medicine