New Age Experimental Synth Queen Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith Is Back With Her Fourth Album ‘The Kid’

The highly-anticipated follow up to Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s groundbreaking synth odyssey EARS is here. The Kid is streaming as of today on NPR’s First Listen before it arrives in stores and on streaming platforms next week on 10/6. You can check it out below.

Earlier this month she spoke with Rolling Stone about how The Kid would differ from her breakout EARS. “[The previous album] was ​made​ ​with​ ​the​ ​live​ ​show​ in mind ​first,” she said. “​So,​ ​I​ ​basically​ ​wrote​ ​it​ ​and​ ​practiced​ ​how I​ ​would​ ​perform​ ​it​ ​and​ ​then​ ​just​ ​pressed​ ​’record.”

Whereas The Kid was less intentional. It “started​ ​from textures.​ ​I​ ​just​ ​got​ ​an​ ​urge​ ​to​ ​create​ ​really​ ​crunchy​ ​textures​ ​that,​ ​kind​ ​of,​ ​gave​ ​me​ ​a feeling​ ​of like,​ ​frosted​ ​shredded​ ​wheat. [I would] ​listen​ ​to​ ​them,​ ​and​ ​kind​ ​of​ ​let​ ​my​ ​visual​ ​brain​ ​start​ ​to​ ​tell​ ​me​ ​what the​ ​world​ ​was​ ​gonna​ ​to​ ​look​ ​like​ ​for​ ​the​ ​album,” she said.

During that same interview, she also revealed that the album was inspired by

this​ ​book​ ​called​ ​<em>New​ ​Musical​ ​Resources</em>[by Henry Cowell].​ ​The​ ​book​ ​is,​ ​basically,​ ​a study​ ​of​ ​how​ ​our​ ​hearing​ ​as​ ​a​ ​culture​ ​has​ ​evolved… I​ ​was​ ​curious​ ​where​ ​our​ ​hearing​ ​would​ ​evolve​ ​to​ ​next,​ ​and​ ​wanted​ ​to​ ​play around​ ​with​ ​the​ ​idea​ ​that​ ​our​ ​hearing​ ​would​ ​be​ ​able​ ​to​ ​split ​so​ ​​we​ ​could​ ​hear​ ​two different​ ​conversations​ ​at​ ​once.​ ​And​ ​so,​ ​I​ ​played​ ​with​ ​that​ ​a​ ​lot​ ​on​ ​the​ ​album… ​of​ ​having the​ ​left​ ​side​ ​and​ ​the​ ​right​ ​side​ ​feel​ ​like​ ​they’re​ ​pulling​ ​for​ ​your​ ​attention​ ​in​ ​different ways.

Smith’s previous record, EARS made our list of the best Electronic/Experimental records of 2016.

The Kid is out on 10/6 via Western Vinyl.