KATE MAKI Confusion Unlimited (independent) Rating: NNNN Rating: NNNN
Confusion Unlimited is exactly what I’ve needed to tide me over while waiting for Sarah Harmer to drop a new album. Bolstered by Jim Bryson’s electric guitar wizardry, organs that sound like they were dragged out of a church basement in Sudbury, homey lap steel and sweet viola riffs, Maki spins a set of homespun alt-country folk-rock ditties that go down easy, like Southern Comfort and root beer. Reminiscent of Harmer’s world-weary sighs, Maki’s mastered a kind of bored-but-hurtin’ belting technique – also check the slight aloofness of Stars’ Amy Millan or Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval – that wraps its tobacco-stained fingers around your heart and squeezes till you cry. Kate Maki brings Confusion Unlimited to B-Side this Wednesday (December 10).