Not least @ Latitude - Part 4 - Esben and The Witch

It is no secret that I have wanted to see this band for some months now.  On Friday at Latitude I did so, again on the Lake Stage, and they exceeded my best expectations. Named for a Danish folk tale, but from Brighton, the three piece are both powerful and involving.  The format means that they have no drummer but they are certainly not without percussive tendencies. Armed with just one drum and a cymbal, at one point all three were wholeheartedly engaged thereon!  As fellow Brightonians Blood Red Shoes amply show, and that is another band I want to hear live, it can actually take only two - Stephen Ansell and Laura Carter in that case - to make a captivating racket.

Between the three of them they handle the material admirably. The wait for their début album should not be too long and I can hardly see it making anything but waves.

Added November 27, 2010:
Here it is revealed in intent and artwork: Violet Cries

I Tried To Do Hand-stands For You...

It is time for some new 'thoughts', more lyrics and a whole lot of new music, but I tend to fail on the vaulting of my ambition.

The most evident utensil

Is nothing but a pencil

and, from different tracks on the same album...

Permanently black and blue

Permanently blue for you.

All the garbage that you have thrown away

Is waiting somewhere a million miles away.

Your condoms and your VCR

Zip-lok bags and your father's car

Dark and silent, wait for you, yea-hey

And so much garbage will never ever decay.

And just four hints for now:

Esben and The Witch

iLiKETRAiNS - album #2

The Joy Formidable - album #2

Blood Red Shoes - Fire Like This

...and a whole lot more to follow. Guess what? I am not a robot...

'White Holes of Mole Hills', anyone, Ruth Theodore (2010)?

Some thought it was facetious on my part and others saw it for what it was. It is real and another worthy of note in the nu-folk canon, artist and album both. It is released on February 15, 2010 by River Rat Records.

Was It Worth It - Jeremey Warmsley and Elizabeth Sankey (aka Summer Camp) seem to think so...

..and (for what it is worth) so do I, very definitely.

To Listen To In 2008 - Part 3

That time has come again and there are plenty of contenders. Here are a few that are on my list but I'll leave the Scandinavian contenders for another post:

First and foremost it has to be Blood Red Shoes:

Box of Secrets, their début album, is released tomorrow on V2 (Universal).

They have been around since 2005 and, fairly unusually, are a grunge-punk two-piece consisting of Laura-Mary Carter (guitar and vocals) and Steven Ansell (drums and vocals). Their live sets and singles released to date have won them wide admiration and the album is only likely to cement that.

The next band is a very different proposition but then Scotland should never be ignored, least of all Make Model.

Aimi sings 'Just another Folk Song' live.

They are a six-piece from Glasgow and both geographically and musically speaking they are in very good company indeed. What is not immediately evident is that, when they decide there is a need to do so, they can simultaneously muster both three guitarists and three vocalists.
Some comparisons are simply too obvious to mention - Make Model are just made for the large stage but their music is actually made by a band that believes meaningful pop still really matters. If I had my way they would become huge in 2008.