Brenda Kahn

August 22 - 29, 1 9 9 6 [Off the Record]

*** Brenda Kahn

DESTINATION ANYWHERE

(Shanachie)
The cover art for Brenda Kahn's Destination Anywhere is airy and angelic; her music is anything but. Her strident vocals, harsh guitar, and sometimes discordant delivery make every song edgy, often menacing. "Night" begins calmly and builds to a screaming frenzy. In "Terrorist," Kahn plays the thinness of her voice against a macabre, threatening melody, but despite her theatrics, she never lets her music control her. Her edges are carefully honed, especially her free-flowing lyrics. Beautiful, intriguing images ("a blurry twilight pool of clear green time") are juxtaposed with sucker-punch phrases about humanity ("some call it suicide, some call it survival"). On "Spoon," about a young boy strung out on heroin, drums and guitar pound out a double-time tempo while Kahn offers a tribute somewhere between a Throwing Muses song and Jim Carroll's anthem "People Who Died." "Faith Salons" is the one exception to the generally unnerving tone as, barely whispering, Kahn forces you to work to hear her. It's one of the album's most engaging songs.
-- Jen Pieters
(Brenda Kahn plays the Kendall Café this Sunday, August 25.)