Bethia Beadman

Called by a malevolent spirit, Bethia Beadman threw her life up in the air, bought a cheap flight to New Orleans, and took off around the swamp towns of Louisiana. Her new album captures the feel of dark odyssey – primal, elemental, thick with swamp-dog magic. That chapter the latest in a life that presents like dream. A Sanskrit scholar who sang for a cardinal in the Vatican. Her tour playing piano for Courtney Love’s Hole. Then in the studio, working with Nigel Godrich on ‘From The Basement’ with Radiohead. Depeche Mode and The Stooges. Her run of personal “audio diaries” - committed only to vinyl - that existed far from any scene. Intense live shows, peaking in an extraordinary night, filling (via word of mouth) London’s Union Chapel. Her new album might sit alongside PJ Harvey or early Cat Power, and with a well-travelled guile and gravitas at play there’s a reverence to her songs that recalls some of her touchstone artists: Marianne Faithful, Scott Walker and Lou Reed. In its fur and claws, Kitten Feel gifts you the soul of a rare voice and talent. An antidote to contemporary overstimulation. A mainline to magic.