Kathryn Joseph has never been shy of reinvention, but her late night set at The Hub felt like a decisive step away from the bare boned intimacy of her early work and into something bolder, denser, and more electrically charged. Where her debut once had candle light flickering over piano and breath close vocals, tonight the pars flooded over synths, drum programming, and a lattice of processed keys that turned the room into a too-brightly lit echo chamber.
Joseph was joined by longtime collaborator Lomond Campbell, whose fingerprints were everywhere, shadowy textures, pulsing low end, and those slow blooming arrangements that make a small melodic idea feel cathedral sized. The pair leaned into the aesthetic of her new era, stormy, sensual, and frequently punishing, in a way that made the set feel more like a single silhouette moving across different weather systems than a sequence of discrete songs.
One of the night’s most memorable moments came in the middle of the set with “Roadkill,” which Joseph introduced by noting that it is her 14 year old daughter’s favourite because she thinks it’s about her mother “getting it on with a dead animal.” Delivered with her trademark mix of deadpan and wicked twinkle, the moment had the crowd laughing out loud before the song itself pulled them back into its hypnotic swirl. She’s often been likened to Scotland’s own Kate Bush, and it’s easy to see why, her voice is utterly distinctive, capable of moving from glass fragile to thunderous in a breath and carrying an emotional weight that few can match.
That sly humour threaded through the night. At one point she praised the venue’s beanbags, noting they made the audience look blissfully relaxed, although she joked she was slightly disappointed that a couple she’d been watching hadn’t actually had sex on them, yet. The crowd, sprawled in varying degrees of festival fatigue, took it in good spirits.
If you came expecting a nostalgia trip through the first album, you’d have left empty handed. Much of that early material was absent, and the acoustic grand piano of those days was nowhere to be seen. In its place was a richer, more electronic palette, with keyboard often submerged in layers of synth and looped effects. At its best, this new skin gave the songs a brooding grandeur, though at times the bass heavy mix buried the lyrics, no small loss for an artist whose words often land like whispered ultimatums.
The last couple of songs pushed yet further, slipping into upbeat, almost pop or trance territory, the sort of thing you could easily dance to. I enjoyed the shift, though I suspect a few of the dyed in the wool fans may have found it a step too far from her earlier, candle lit intimacy.
As a portrait of where Joseph is now, the set was compelling, a confident refusal to repeat herself, a willingness to roughen the surface until the beauty shows through the cracks. Clearer vocals would have made it even stronger, but this was still bold, bruised, magnetic music, built for the wee small hours and the brave hearts who haunt them.
Reviewer: Greg Holstead
Reviewed: 9th August 2025
North West End UK Rating:
Running time – 1hr 20mins
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