Kitchens of Distinction - Love is hell

This is one of the records I have in my Mp3 player.In this album apperas songs like In a cave or shiver that recurrently I listen when I am in the mood.

Kicking off with 1989's 'Love Is Hell', their first and arguably best album, their sound was distilled almost perfectly in a collection of nine songs. Oddly, in the opening track, 'In A Cave', Patrick Fitzgerald's vocals veer dangerously close to Michael Stipe territory but as the song reaches its conclusion, his voice chooses to become yearning rather than whining. 'Time To Groan' documents their tender side to perfection; Julian Swales's atypically subtle chiming guitar patterns becoming the perfect foil for Fitzgerald's tale of what appears to be a failed marriage. 'Shiver' impresses similarly with its clever use of dub effects; the conviction of the lyric to "make my flesh shiver" aptly describes the feelings generated from hearing the track. 'Prize' is an anthemic single featuring a lyric of "So do I get a prize for remembering that first time. Do I get a prize for remembering his name?" must be one of the few overtly gay sentiments ever committed to single form but the fact that the song is tremendously exciting and exhilarating is even more important. These four tracks combine to make a terrific opening for an album and in truth of the remainder only the shouty vocals on 'Mainly Mornings' could be referred to as a disappointment with the 6-minute plus 'Hammer' providing a thrilling, thunderous finale.

KOD formed in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1987

Cult band Kitchens of Distinction like to shroud their origins in multiple myths. Sometimes they say that they met in a Turkish sauna; sometimes in a satanist temple in Amsterdam; sometimes - most credibly - at a Dutch gig by the reggae legend Burning Spear. Drummer Dan Goodwin had been involved with East London experimentalists AR Kane; guitarist Julian Swales, had, it was said, been in an early incarnation of fluffy Goth types All About Eve. But singer and bass player Patrick Fitzgerald was not, as was often assumed, the punk poet of the same name: he had been a doctor before deciding to chance it in the world of pop.
The Kitchens' first single, "Last Gasp Death Shuffle", was Single of the Week in the NME. "Prize", which followed in October 1988 on One Little Indian (the label made trendy by the Sugarcubes), was a very fine single, a mixture of the tuneful jangliness that has been indie pop's staple since Orange Juice, and bigger, more ambitious noises that suggested both the Cocteau Twins and dub-reggae. But "Prize" was also one of the first explicitly gay guitar-pop records. Apart from the dabblings of Lou Reed and David Bowie in the early 70s, most openly gay pop had been disco - the Kitchens' candid reflections on queer promiscuity were at odds with the very basic boy-loses-girl agenda of most indie records.
Another cracking single, "The 3rd Time We Opened the Capsule" (1989) led on to the release of the debut album Love is Hell. It picked up good reviews with its mix of lush effects-saturated guitars and dubby rhythms - a harder, more emotional approach than the easily washed away waffles of AR Kane. The autumn's Elephantine EP impressed with it title track, and the anti-Thatcher "Margaret's Injection", plus the impressive reggae-rooted and vast sounding "Anvil Dub". Their live shows were fine too, their down-to-earth wit undercutting any cathedrals-of-sound tendencies in the music. Although they were never consensus music press favourites and were a long way from the Manchester lads who were starting to dominate the charts, it all seemed a matter of time before the Kitchens hit the big time.
Alas, the next single, "Quick as Rainbows", failed to turn them into popular heroes, and 1991's album, Strange Free World, despite providing another fab single in "Gorgeous Love", was somehow flat and lifeless. The Kitchens had become a very poor man's Psychedelic Furs. Even the distinctive, slightly kitsch packaging of their previous records had been dumped for a distinctly humour-free Japanese wave painting.
Still, the band played on, and although Britain had given up on them, America seemed more promising, with college radio play keeping them touring the US. Death of Cool (1992), however, was neither a commercial or qualitative advance on the last one, its title heavy-handed irony, as by this point the Kitchens could not have been further from the zeitgeist. After 1994's Cowboys and Aliens hit the bargain bins without a backward glance, One Little Indian decided that they had had enough and quietly dropped the band. Undeterred, the Kitchens picked themselves up, shortened their name to Kitchens O.D., and signed to the small Fierce Panda label, for one more push.
Mark Elliot
The Rough Guide to Rock

Kitchens of distinction - In a cave

Kitchen of distinction  - Drive that fast