Reviewed by Jonathan Harris

This EP from a Portadown-born songstress was released in 2013 but it doesn't deserve to be overlooked. The singer/songwriter explained that the title track came from a time when in a last attempt to fix a childhood toy she cracked open its plastic casing with a hammer and with still no life emerging concluded that better to have smashed it open and tried to make it work than to have left a "perfectly fine" toy unusable. This insight has inspired Katharine Phillippa's writing. "Nightingale" features Katharine's porcelain vocals repeating the line "You hit this heart like a drum-beat" which are hammered home by the off-beats of a bass drum. As the song develops Katharine's vocals remain delicate, yet unravel. Then there's the looming "Pawns", which is certainly not a song for the faint-hearted and the tension created by the distorted drum arrangement picture frame the searching lyrics. A music graduate from Queen's University, Belfast who majored in playing the organ, this is Katharine's instrument of choice in the opening track "Hosanna". Throughout the first half of the song there is plenty of ambient background noise which presents the setting of a church building perfectly and allows the recording to beautifully retain the clunking of foot pedals of the organ, which provide a percussive backdrop. For me, "Home" is the highlight of this set as the simple, nuanced piano accompaniment seems to float effortlessly over the recording of waves lapping on the shores of Portbalintrae in the background. There are some obvious comparisons to Florence And The Machine and Over The Rhine, mainly due to the space which is afforded to the perfectly executed yet brittle vocals. 'Broken To Be Rebuilt' it is far from an easy listen. But this is still an exceptionally good collection of songs from an extremely talented singer/songwriter.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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