“They’re all about cock,” said no Edinburgh International Festival artist ever, by way of introduction to their songs. Until now, that is. Kathryn Joseph makes gorgeous, cathedral-ready music worthy of these Edinburgh International Festival-sponsored surroundings at the Hub, yet she’s a Caledonian Patti Smith at heart, a serrated-edge, bluntly honest electronic rock troubadour.
Joseph and her regular collaborator Lomond Campbell stood at their keyboards in the centre of this vaulting church hall, a thrust stage effect with the audience surrounding them on three sides. She seemed exposed in this setting, being watched from all sides – we know this because she said so repeatedly, asking for the lights to be lowered.
Yet the sense of slowly-easing awkwardness only added to the show, bringing both an emotional frisson to the music and an oddly hilarious thread of repartee between both musicians, a spicy double act. “My job is putting up with Kathryn Joseph,” laughed “work colleague” Campbell. “He’s a creepy genius,” shot back Joseph.
The set largely comprised Joseph’s recent album We Were Made Prey in its entirety, with Campbell’s crunching John Carpenter electronics adding dark texture to the opening Wolf, Joseph’s stated favourite Harbour and Roadkill, which her teenage daughter once impudently told her is about having sex with a dead animal. It isn’t, but it sounded just as dark.
Up Late with Kathryn Joseph, The Hub, 9 Aug, 10pm