Category: Indie Folk

Categories
Acoustic Duo Folk Music Gentle Gig Indie Folk Nature Folk

19th April 2024- Honey and the Bear at The Wesley Centre, Maltby

Next for us in Maltby at the Wesley Centre Live we see Honey and the Bear, a Suffolk folk duo who have ventured here for the first time with a sound more towards the indie folk, and a soundscape of music exploring the natural world. It is a nice addition as the weather starts to turn better, and the clouds retreat just a little bit more. As always, this venue is great on sound quality, value, atmosphere and friendliness. We are always keen to promote these venues where they exist and have attention to detail of both the core music experience and the little welcoming niceties.

Honey and the Bear are a duo, but here they are joined by Evan Carsen (assorted percussion including a bodhran of some description) and Tony Shaer (violin, flute, numerous). They are all really good, Shear is a versatile instrumentalist, Carsen has a most fantastic array of percussionist tools at his array which he works magic with. If there was a way of describing the sound that comes from Honey and The Bear, it is the balming wind that sails through the leaves and under the heat of the high afternoon sun. Nature can seem timeless in the odd moments, the band here encapsulate that gentle Spring and Summer brightness that rarely exists in the UK. Nevertheless the one time it is a scorching day, it is baked into the memory of us old ‘uns and thought fondly of each time.

In terms of subject and spread of the set, we have songs that cover tales from their geography and industry, lesser known but accomplished celebrities, and the odd folklorist tale here and there. There is a lot to listen to, and a lot to enjoy, so we will give you a snapshot.

Let us start with what wets our whistle the most, the folklore. Here the band talk of and sing about “Black Shuck”, a black dog (if memory serves with eyes like “saucers”) who terrorises no-er do wells outside in Suffolk. With it’s drums pounding in simplicity, as an audience we indeed “fear the black dog” when it calls. Early in the set it highlight’s the duo’s natural tones away from large instrumentation, it cannot be beat. A lighter, more breezy number later on which is almost it’s mirror is “Tinker”, a palate-cleansing song, a ramble through nature and in a sense, pure sensation. The immersiveness of Honey and the Bear is hard to deny, and much like the song says, “the soul of the forest is drifting in”.

“Finn’s Jig” by Honey and the Bear

“Finn’s Jig” is from their album “Away Beyond the Fret” which concerns their little son Finn with the song being dedicated by his older sibling Ash to commemorate his being. Blazing with woodwind, it is expansive and optimistic, “we can be daring, we can be strong, we’ll be explorers, we’ll get the job done” it reminds of those artists who have encapsulated the world through their child’s eyes in sing such as Megson and Kate Rusby. Highly melodic and light it has a youthful essence that burns bright. Similarly in the set, there is also “The Swallow” a pacey, nature-bounding escapade into the wild, a road trip through the Summer and a song full of indie folk sensibility. Here you get a sense of “Honey and the Bear” as you listen to the playful intermix of major vocals, the gentle simmering backing vocal and the hayful footpedal leading forward the epitome of their image and sound.

“Over Land and Over Sea” is a good historical number that charts the work of people from Garrett’e Engineering Works with the “Living Van”. The engines that are transferred overseas are so big the driver would continue on with them in these vans, the name given to a wooden trailer that is towed behind for the worker to live in away from home. On delivery they would then have to return home without a vehicle to move them.. and this could take a while. The percussion is industrial, the guitar is moody, and Lucy’s voice is lifting, mysterious and willowy. It has a bounce and hypnotic quality like the introspection in the mind of a long distance driver coming up to Hamburg.

Honey and the Bear have a good setup with a generally gentle sound that is bolstered by a great harmony. This earthy, green sound is bolstered by an expansive number of instruments (seriously you cannot see the wood through the strings) which are played pitch perfect by all. Honey & The Bear are a band of balance, they have a few songs influenced by this and that, natural and man-made and it is all tied into that essence, that feeling of bird song and sunshine.

Wesley Centre Live has some more gigs starting in October, check out their Facebook page here.

More Information about Honey & The Bear can be found here.

Categories
Album/EP Reviews Americana Debut Indie Folk

Almond&Olive – Standing at the Precipice (Album Review)

 

 

Almond&Olive deliver an earnest and lyrically intriguing debut with a strong character and rapport in voice

Having released this debut last Friday (27th January 2017), artists Almond&Olive that consists of Natalie Alms (Almond) and Ollie Davidson (Olive) are no longer standing at the precipice but have taken a good look and lept over to meet whatever fate is on the other side. From the production, lyrics and delivery on this album, it seems like it will be a trampoline that should help them reach even higher than the mountain they started from.

A pairing which is undoubtedly  sweeter than the foodstuff mix (though I think someone will probably try it), they are a curious couple of artists together and individually doing a lot of good for charity (particularly animal charities) and their characters come through in the photography, it certainly does not look like an exercise in ego. This is just as well as the tables have turned the other way and impressively this debut has had pledged $10,000 in just 30 days of Kickstarter, and the duo will be donating some of the proceeds to animal shelter charities (see their website here for more information). Surely there must be something more than appearances and vivid photography that has got people excited to hear from them, making them stand out above other Indie Folk efforts (of which there are many)?

At first glance and listen without attention, it cannot really be the themes within the album.  Not to say there is anything bad in choice but relationships are a well-ridden path in Indie Folk (its probably the equivalent of songs about maidens from history in regular folk of which I’ve heard an awful lot of). But with an album such as this, which takes a lot of these issues and looks at them in earnest (and sometimes considering older love) it makes “Standing at the Precipice” sound like a well-spring as it bursts a layer of burning sand and sienna scorched rocks. It is strongly situated in youth and makes no bones about dedicating the whole album to this broad theme making it an album that speaks to those in the throes of passion, but not exclusively so. Sometimes it’s more excited, sometimes more sombre like a hint of heat delirium, it does what it sets out to do very well; there is something more here. Throughout there is an interesting dynamic of the duo,’s voices, the tracks have a varied instrumentation that fits each song accordingly, and the lyrics themselves sparkle the strongest amongst all these elements. The album has an overall feeling of being upbeat and interesting without being cocky about it, there is certainly some good, humble musicianship here to be enjoyed and admired. What about the tracks?

The first track, “We Will” is a delicate, dustbowl of a track. Melodic and catching it boasts some great instrumentation from the get go with it’s subtle banjo building into a much larger and incredibly appealing soundscape of big drum, brass, guitar and fiddle. An optimistic track that looks to two people spending their lives together, Alms’ voice is sweet with an expressive edge, a bit like buttercream which is soft and slightly grainy in all the best ways. The pacing of the track is kept with a familiar drumming and enhanced by the other musical sections; it has some fairly simple, but clear lyrics,”I will feel your heart, I will know where to start on my search.. to carry you home.” It is contentment in a song really, you can picture two older people toasting their lives and acknowledging a love that does not need to be spoken or the reasoning kind of love which imagines and pictures a practical partnership. A good opener which continues.

The second track, “Standing at the Precipice” wastes no time building momentum from the first track. It is full of primal sounds with a scraping guitar and a shrill harmonica bringing the slight menace of risk from hurt when in love. The imagery is rather shattering imagery as it describes this scene of emotional uncertainty in lavish and welcome detail. There are some nice cryptic lyrics too, “now the sky is getting darker, the books don’t ever explain what were looking to find,” I particularly love the small touches with this track such as the “whoops”, and the emotional yearning from the vocals.

Other songs that deserve a special measure are “Can’t Stop” which has a strong bassline, along with a precise steel guitar that rolls with heat through heat through cactus adorned sandscapes. The lyrics are particularly reaching and poetic on this track, “I won’t break like a diamond in the rough, I can never have enough.. I won’t break for you” and there is a splash of a number of synth/keyboard interjections that breathe even more life into a quick number. A crowd teaser it is one of the more optimistic of the tracks on the album it will doubtlessly be a popular number on live nights.”Nadine” is another standout track. Having a change in pace there a slower drum with an excellent interplay of voices with Ollie (Olive) seemingly taking a larger role, “Nadine.. this song was a dream.. could have fooled me.” It is beautifully solemn as it explores people splitting and going their separate ways. When listening it is quite a heart-tugging number as it effectively drags up your own memories of “almost loves” and partners past to parade for your minds eye. Time does not feel like the healer in the song, but rather like a cruel needle suturing a wound which in the end might recover but hurts so much along the way.

Track 7 “Long Night” is also pretty special track with it being part a welcome song, an invite to someone’s hearth, home, and life. It gives off a kind of musky heat,”welcome me to a bed of no clothes” which Alms’ voice is like a reluctant carnality, it makes the heart race and engulfs you in what is happening. It stands at opposite to “Heartbeat” the final track. “Heartbeart” is instructional, either as someone’s conscience or as one friend to another it says that “nobody owns your heart”. The arrangement is slightly sparser giving the song to breathe a little bit more than some of the busier tracks on the album. The fiddle is essential and it’s coolness is a nice way to end the series of songs and experiences felt along the way.

Well arranged and sounding really polished for a debut album, this disc has more than a shade of Americana thrown into it’s Indie Folk mix though it takes a hard Cadillac left to avoid Stateside cliche. It instead goes for an attack of the lyrical and outshines a lot of the competition with it’s well-crafted words  and an interesting interplay and rapport in voice. Like the snakes of the Hippocratic oath symbol, their voices unfurl and meet together bringing their own styles to play. They resonate with one another in a way that grabs your attention and convinces you of the strength of their work away from the corn sepia photography and modern dress, their depth is there to see beyond a mere polished surface.

Give them a try, a nice debut and an album 150 backers certainly aren’t wrong about!

You can purchase Almond&Olive’s debut here.

 

Categories
Americana Indie Folk

September 2016 : Little Lapin’s “Lover’s Gate”

Little Lapin – “Lover’s Gate” from the Album “Holding Out for the Kicks”

Album available @ CDBaby and BandCamp 

Website http://www.littlelapinmusic.com/

Check out the website for details of their tour!

 

What can I say?

I reviewed this album the other week for FATEA magazine,  (here) and listened to some of the tracks before moving on to some other albums on my list.

But the other night I was driving and I was observing the quietness on the roads and the mix of drunken tragedy (as the students are back) and seemingly tender moments in the palely lit walkways, it made me think of this song.

It is an indie folk song that is semi post-apocalyptic. What I mean is, you can imagine that the content is almost mildly fearful of what is to come, much like Grime’s “Oblivion” from the other year it conjures a sense of the void. But much like the rest of the album, it has youthful optimism which is communicated in quite an understated way on the album and in particular in this song . The subject in the song seemingly muses on a backup plan for just in case the world implodes and burns, it is delicately and beautifully sung with a touch of melancholy, it’s simplicity is it’s strength.

Not just that, the live performance is spot on with the album, the lighting and atmosphere is moody and evocative(if only I was there).

Check it out, much like the album in general there is a dream-like essence and a musing which gets the thoughts going.

Categories
Album/EP Reviews Americana Folk Music Indie Folk

Edd Donovan and the Wandering Moles – Making Mountains (Vol 1)

Edd Donovan and the Wandering Moles: Making Mountains (Vol 1)




An artist with old school authenticity and a collection of songs aptly wrapped in the phenomenology of experience drenched in Americana which takes the best aspects of modern music

Album: Making Mountains (Vol 1.)

Label: Paper Label Records

Website: http://www.edddonovan.co.uk/

Release Date: 3rd June 2016

I don’t often venture into Americana I regret to inform. 


There are some of the old tracks that get the mind going and capture a time and place though, so now and then I will pop my head in and see what is happening when Twitter shows me an interesting video or an artist has does something else with the genre to get my attention; and those are the times I wish I listened to a bit more. Edd Donovan goes a long way to prove this notion to myself as he takes indie-folk and Americana and makes it his own. I had not heard of the artist so I was intrigued to find out about him.



Edd Donovan is a singer-songwriter and this is Edd’s second album. His first album “Something to Take the Edge off” did make a splash, at least enough to allow him to tour quite a lot with the band and individually, and to be recognised by the The Guardian newspaper. A distinctive point in which he has been recognised and identified is by a fact that he shares with myself: we are both social workers. This piques my interest as in his day-to-day work I am presuming he sees and hears a lot of interesting things (like I do myself) and this throws down the gauntlet to Edd to see how these things are worked into his album, and whether he has found a clever way to use these unique and often precious observations of people; it is these things after all that will set him and his band apart from other stuff that is out there. “Making Mountains” does actually paint a wide-range of experiences into it’s construction which can be owed to Edd inhabiting the mindspace of people in love, people in search of meaning and people grieving. As a collection of songs there is a feeling of a first-hand account of these details that has helped to layer the album with a kind of spirituality that is rooted in it’s acoustic warmth.


I have heard of artists (and other Eds) who circle the chart scene while it has it’s on-off relationship with acoustic music, and some can make an excellent living from it but I get turned off by some pop-acoustic music that is separated from history, social justice or personal feeling that is anything different to the search for teenage identity. For me this could be the quality of writing or it could just be that I’m getting old and not requiring young men to describe my feelings of angst and love anymore. “Making Mountains” isn’t this kind of disc making this kind of advice. It is youthful, but youthful in a wise way, capturing a young mindset within an older body, perhaps one which is more succinct at describing it’s feelings from the passage of time while not missing it’s initial, budding charm. It’s energetic in a ginger ale drink way, the vocals are light like bubbles crackling and moving through a sharper liquid of emotive constructed lyrics. There are a number of tracks on the album that illustrate this quite well, but the joy in Donovan and band is that when you become comfortable with some of their sounds, they will turn the whole thing on it’s head and graciously surprise.


Tracks


“Dog’s don’t bite” is a spring-stepped start to the album. It has some persistent and solid drumming and a lightly haunting violin which adds a bittersweet companion to Edd’s affective, gliding vocals, “I want to go where the dogs don’t bite”. It builds up nicely and manages to wind a thread of joy and desperation into a track that takes the listener to the late Summer of a relationship. The subject seems to want to be with their significant other while the shadow of rejection creeps over the sun, “I’ve got nothing better to do than wait for you.” Later on, “Who will Show Us” likewise muses on the moment, wondering what is in it and what is just around the corner. It is the most galloping of tracks with a person who is waiting, possibly on the cusp of something great but unsure what this current time is about, “I’m waiting for something to happen.. I spend all my time smiling and laughing.” It is almost existential as the singer searches for meanings in the gestures and the possibilities in free choice, and is a highly melodic addition to the album.


“Talking Jesus” has a fresh, chiming vocal harmony backed by a poetic, soulful set of lyrics that sear in their originality, “my engine’s burning hotter than a heart attack.” It also quite visceral in it’s descriptions of “razor” blades and “cocaine” as it feels like it is describing a hedonism at it’s height like Jordan Belfort transplanted into the Americana of the Wild West. There is a mood of the singer seeking God and meaning within miles of dusty brutality, it is stirringly shocking and evocative. Much of the earlier tracks on the album are cited the most by media, but “Talking Jesus” for myself is the indicator of a tipping point towards the more interesting tracks on the album.



“Pink Belly” is a greatly rebellious track. I have up to this point characterised Edd Donovan as a mostly cheerful character, but with this track’s double bass, skulking guitar and almost prophesying voice we move to a more deconstructing and discontenting song,”the human race is failing and their systems don’t work.” The track has the character and feel of “One Step Beyond” and Madness, it is very two-tone and it’s appearance on the album is revealed suddenly and gleefully like the identity of Scooby Doo’s villain of the week. It is a major surprise on the album which speaks volumes of the artist’s versatility, and a firm favourite with myself.


In Review


Edd’s pellucid singing voice shines throughout bringing a deceptively idiosyncratic album into the mix which rather than sitting in it’s wicker chair of Americana prefers to perch on the edge, comfortable where it is but with it’s focus all around for inspiration. It is a characterful album which is quite distinctive in it’s phenomenological lyrics, song and instrumentation that blend into discrete experiences that reward re-listening. It is for this reason it has taken me a little while since release to begin to think about it’s intricacies and messages and in a good way, I think I’ll be at it a little while longer.


It is a nicely diverse album with some good composition, thoughtful songs, and accomplished musicianship that brings a lot to the table and leaves you sitting there fulfilled but wanting to know what all the ingredients are. 


It is certainly worth a look before Edd Donovan looks to the second volume and brings his lightness of touch and sincerity to a further work.


Check out a sample below:

 

Edd Donovan and the Wandering Moles are currently on their “Making Mountains” tour and has just been at Wychwood Festival. Details of upcoming festival appearances can be seen here, where you can also sign up for their newsletter. 


If you want to get their album, go straight to the bandcamp page here and support them directly.