Across her audacious 2020 record Charles/VVII, Katie Kim displayed a rare ability to assay the album format itself, juxtaposing a montage of memories with masterful ease across the record. She made the listener squirm with just a whisper on the creepy ‘Cut Your Hair’, and sublimely expanded the possibilities of field recording on ‘Livin’ For The Weekend/254 S First St’.

Katie’s wonderful experimentation continues apace on Hour Of The Ox. ‘Mona’ opens the record on the wing of a bee, then a hive, then a horde – Kim parachutes us in, on a siren synth into the hornet’s nest, drowsily relaying the process of tearing down and rebuilding, of memories lying in the dust. ‘Into Which The Worm Falls’ also evokes a pastoral setting, but one that is ominously haunting. It segues into ‘Golden Circles’, where Kim joltingly states, “Suddenly don’t like me / Suddenly don’t like yourself / Like you did before”.

The hypnotic ‘Eraser’ whispers of cyber-espionage – of being left adrift, and torn in two with burning skin and a boiling tongue. On ‘Helen (Carry The Load)’, smothered voices struggle on the Siberian side of the piano, while the message of ‘Gentle Bird’ remains elusive through chatter, echo, misquote and submersion. An exquisite album that demands exploration.

9/10

Tickets for the Hour Of The Ox album launch at the Button Factory in Dublin tomorrow, September 10, are available here.

Read Katie Kim's interview in the new issue of Hot Press, out now: