Kinzli & The Kilowatts – Down Up Down (Polkadot Records)
How many self-funded artists are actually out there, I wonder? Here is another, a female singer-songwriter, who, just like so many others, did most of the recording of this in her living room, whilst holding down a full-time job. A credit to her tenacity that she got this project off the ground in the first place, then out into the big wide world for our pleasure, and managed, in the main, to sound as good as it does.

The music does have an air of dedicated delicacy about it. This is a good thing, but it happens after the first track, which, I have to admit to, I really struggled to listen to. It is about gang violence just outside her door (in London), but seems to end up being an Eastern European-gypsy-musicians-meet-chirpy-singer-and-slap-it-together-warble thing, which I just couldn’t take to. However, it does give way to some very neat female singer-songwriter tunes, with a rather delicious mix of instrumentation that effectively cradles the voice of Kinzli on each and every track. The sheer variety of songs is a big plus, and although the ‘gypsy’ influences make an appearance again on both “I Read Your Letter” and “The Land Of Il”, the mixture of tunes and tempo doesn’t lose its flair.

On the whole this is a fairly successful attempt to feed her listeners a musical meal that will appeal to almost every palate, so Kinzli and her Kilowatts have not wasted all of their energy here. Maybe, when it is time for album number three, she will have decided upon which musical direction suits her best, and I for one hope the gypsy influences will not even feature as an Hors d’oeuvre. 
www.myspace.com/kinzli

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