THIS IS THE KIT

While Kate Stables is beloved for the haunting Celtic tinged melodies and evocative lyrics she records under the alias This Is the Kit, one of the most poignant moments on her new LP is taken from a far off land and sung in a language you’re not likely to understand.

“By My Demon features a chorus from an African folk tale first unearthed by ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey, whose work Stables studies and draws inspiration from. Those exotic lyrics detail a time honored tribal tale about a tortoise and a hare, the latter of whom tricks the former into visiting a miserable old woman who lures liars to her cauldron of scalding hot water. The repetitive portions of that foreign refrain describe the “boiling boiling boiling” water that the gullible turtle is being led toward.