The White Kites: Missing

New psychedelic contenders take Pole position.

By Jo Kendall
( Prog )
published

There’s been a mini flurry of nu-neo-psych in the Prog postbag lately. Blighty-based acts such as Soft Hearted Scientists, Vienna Circle, Schnauser and Hidden Masters are carrying on a fine tradition of quirk, strangeness and charm, as others such as Goat, The Black Angels, Jacco Gardner and Tame Impala take it across the globe.

So how about something from Poland in this vein, something that’s not of typical metallic magnificence? Cue Warsaw septet The White Kites, led by ex-pat Sean Pom Palmer. Sung in English, much of their material achieves an easy, swinging ’68 familiarity.

Take Stowaway Sylvie, with its Britpop jauntiness, or perhaps the Tull-esque baroque mischief of Should You Wait For Me. Other songs on Missing evoke The Nice, Robyn Hitchcock and Dukes Of Stratosfear, but at times the melodic focus is lost on long-form narratives, as is this listener’s attention span.

If this album had been about four songs shorter and punctuated with preceding single Love Doctor and its excellent flip Evening Walk, we’d really be off to a flyer. Nonetheless, their fastidious musicality and intriguing tunes make this a striking and ambitious starting point.

Jo Kendall
Jo Kendall

Jo is a journalist, podcaster, event host and music industry lecturer with 23 years in music magazines since joining Kerrang! as office manager in 1999. But before that Jo had 10 years as a London-based gig promoter and DJ, also working in various vintage record shops and for the UK arm of the Sub Pop label as a warehouse and press assistant. Jo's had tea with Robert Fripp, touched Ian Anderson's favourite flute (!), asked Suzi Quatro what one wears under a leather catsuit, and invented several ridiculous editorial ideas such as the regular celebrity cooking column for Prog, Supper's Ready. After being Deputy Editor for Prog for five years and Managing Editor of Classic Rock for three, Jo is now Associate Editor of Prog, where she's been since its inception in 2009, and a regular contributor to Classic Rock. She continues to spread the experimental and psychedelic music-based word amid unsuspecting students at BIMM Institute London, hoping to inspire the next gen of rock, metal, prog and indie creators and appreciators.