Kitty Rhombus: “Gentle Shotgun”

Kitty Rhombus is a local quartet that draws its inspiration from a variety of sources – punk, jazz, metal, prog, and more. And there are times when it sounds like each musician is playing their own chosen genre simultaneously.  The cacophony of Kitty Rombus’s sound is intentional, and its actually partly how they got their name which stems from “catty whompus” or “off kilter” according to this interview.  And it’s precisely this noisy, off-kilter approach that makes them interesting to listen to.  Their new single “Gentle Shotgun” is a frenzied piece of art-punk that in a general sense adheres to a structure but is also bursting at the seams with energy.  It’s hard to know, for instance, if there is a method to the madness of the drumming.  Even harder to discern what the lead vocalist is singing, but whatever it is he spits it out with abandon, sounding at times not unlike a young David Thomas.  And if any of this sounds disparaging, I mean it in the opposite way: there isn’t anything formulaic about Kitty Rhombus’s sound which to my mind is a good thing.  Their Facebook Page states the mantra “a healthy embrace of chaos,” which is a prescription I wouldn’t mind writing for a number of more buttoned-down bands out there.  The group’s new LP Spectre at the Feast will be available on 3/1 at their release show at the Hexagon Bar, and I for one look forward to the promise of all that chaotic new sound.

— Jon