Brooklyn’s powerful folk-pop duo of Courtney Kaiser and Benjamin Kartel is known simply as Kaiser Cartel. They’ve been making music together since 2004, and despite Kaiser’s classical vocal training (she lent her vocals to the upcoming Sufjan Stevens album) and Kartel’s penchant for self-teaching, the pairing is remarkably satisfying.
While songs off the new album, Secret Transit, like “Memphis” and “The Wait” are somber, sparse, and haunting, threaded with varying layers of the two’s transient life and also of home, your JOTD is just the opposite.
“Ready To Go” ironically starts with Kaiser’s statement: “We’re being disciplined now.” But, the track quickly gets off the ground with shimmering cabasa, jumpy tambourine, and the echoing sentiment “Ready to go!”
Evoking images of road trips with the top down against a California horizon, “Ready To Go” urges you to get in your car and press the gas pedal down, go somewhere, start anew. It implies the need for a healthy dose of reckless abandon, not discipline.
Secret Transit is out now on Daniel Records.