Paper hat champion and Dublin-born musician David Kitt pursues a scattered collection of interjections and sound effects beneath that folk core. Idiot Check flows as well as those leaves on the breeze mentioned on opening track Every Little Drop. Kitt leaves no time for contemplation as he runs through these fantasies of sin and the consistency of Idiot Check makes it easy to lose time deep within. Play it again and again, the tight mixture and the constant appearance of that acoustic guitar to a beat it can just about keep up with makes this Kitt experience quite the charmer. Not So Soon is a blend of eras, an articulate spin on what traditional values are there for the folk genre.
Spinning those in new and electronic directions, as they are on the soft-yet-harsh warmth of Wishing Well, is a crucial example of Kitt’s quality. Twinkling interjections of electric harshness give that track a move away from folk complacency. Those integral charms are right there, functioning as they should but with a careful and monumental effort from Kitt, they are expanded on. He shows he can still provide for the fundamentals of the genre with All Folly, a delicately paced piece that relies on soft echoes and Lambchop-like displays. His lyrics are consistently in keeping with survival. Its pandemic writing days and the subsequent impact of a worldwide shutdown is staggering and one of the few artistic projects out there that successfully tackles a raw and damaging topic. Kitt is on point and present with the whining strings of All Folly, and he pursues that line between the survival of love and the creative process.
Wrapping his A-Side nicely with It’s in Some of Us, one of many experiments that go awry but recoup before their end, Kitt has a tremendous balance to his work here. Leave Me Making is a connection with the world around him, the nature of his surroundings as he records in isolation. Blood, sweat, rain and tears, are all present on Idiot Check and as effective as it is consistently moving. Katie Kim and Mary Margaret O’Hara are absolute titans for this piece, with backing vocals from the former and exceptional writing from the latter on Oh Folly. Their inclusions mark this solo venture for Kitt as an intimate and well-enlisted piece but also a fundamentally moved album. His keenness to showcase experimental, electronic riffs on Leave Me Thinking is as much a steal as the closing personalities found on Wave of Peace.
Deeply rooted in its nature and elements that surround the impressive set-up Kitt gave himself for recording this piece, Idiot Check is full of moving highs. Wexford Strawberries details the impressive collection of well-layered meaningfulness while following track Till The End broods on a mean little synth introduction that may be buried under the folk interpretations, but provides a bed of integral, shifting credibility. Lush and relaxing string compilations mark the final steps of Kitt, who provides a successful, telling study of his style so far and where it can go next. Till The End does not signal the end, the safer melodies and upbeat folk found on Balances slam the brakes on. Idiot Check is a chequered, appealing experiment with the form of folk, and for that, Kitt should be applauded. Applause can continue for the cracking album he has provided too, a nicely pieced-together release. Let the Wave of Pace take that place of worry, Kitt marks a wonderful opportunity to lose yourself in folk experimentation.
