Apollo by Kite Club

com@ 10/05/03

The music spills over you like a warm shower, leaving you feeling relaxed and comfortable. So put on your snuggliest flannel jammies, curl up under the afghan and make your significant other bring you a cup of cocoa...It doesn't punch you in the face or kick you in the stomach. It cannily permeates your senses, washing over you in a rush of pretty sound and passionate imagery. To describe it as shoegaze would be too simple, though it does have the hazy beauty and lush fuzziness of that genre. Brian Burkhard's moog and keyboard additions add a bit of experimental pop flavor on several tracks. A couple of the tracks have a folk/ country appeal with restrained harmony vocals adding to the stories being told...The overall appeal of the disc is the quietly lush mixture of the vocals and the instrumentation. The poppy moments keep you from being overindulged by the sleepy sensations, ensuring you give the whole album your attention. Burkhard's backing vocals add a fabulous little boy lost appeal...Judson's vocals are dead on, thready when the music whispers by on spidery legs and strongly carrying the songs when it should."

South of Mainstream, www.southofmainstream.com@ 3:01 pm 11/09/03

Love, mystery, reluctance, crimes and misdemeanors, relativity, memory, give and take, light.

Remember when? Now forget it completely.

Friends say, "Who was that song about? Was that me?"

"Heartfelt and smart lyrics play out atop a variety of trio rock and Yo La Tengo sensitivity. Occasional keys and Moog accompany bubbly bass, jangly guitar and grounded rhythms. Barbara Manning and Natalie Merchant style front-gal vocals hold the listener in mysterious curiosity."

Infectious B, Bent Records, Chicago IL

"If someone doesn't have to shout to make themselves heard, they usually have something to say. Kite Club's lush, quiet songs about the heart and the mind will draw you in. Hannah Judson's expressive, versatile voice tugs at you irresistibly. You can never be sure if the song will be lightly floating high above you, or pulling on your clenched fists with the power of a stiff gale. You find yourself absorbed by the simple but unexpected twists and turns of the music and lyrics. Most importantly, you feel the direct connection to something beautiful and eternal. Leslie Santos and Brian Burkhart lay down a flawless base for Judson's songwriting."

Kent Withrow, Signal 2 Noise Ratio, Austin, TX

The members of Kite Club have been active in the Chicago band scene in various projects, for years. Leslie Santos has kept the beat for many popular bands including Stump the Host, the Andersons, and Sweet Bridget. Leslie and Hannah Judson teamed up during the Sweet Bridget years (1994-2000) where she penned the hits, sang and strummed her red guitar.

After the demise of Sweet Bridget (the other two members of the quartet moved to the rhyming cities of Austin and Boston during the month of April), Leslie and Hannah continued to work together, performing with various line-ups at Phyllis's Musical Inn, and other comfortable spaces. They lured pal Brian Burkhard into the fray with a series of songs Hannah wrote while pregnant with her daughter. They were calm, quiet, low-fi, observant and unlike what came before. They decided to focus on the Cowboy Junkies and Mazzy Staresque sounds which accompanied the new mother's song writing. Then they remembered their rock roots. Apollo is a mixture of the observant, pensive, still and hopeful, with shadows of their former loud selves.

Brian Burkhard: bass, moog, samples, other keys, vocals

Leslie Santos: drums

Hannah Judson: guitar, vocals

Average Customer Review: