New Music 2016 - Part 1 - The Black Feathers - Soaked To The Bone

Yes, I know it is not even November for another few hours; enjoy Hallowe'en and bear with me.  I am far from done with 'New Music 2015'  but I have decided to start on 2016 with this post for a reason beyond merely the fact that I can.

'Soaked To The Bone' is the début full LP from Gloucestershire-based duo The Black Feathers that comprises Ray Hughes (vocals and guitar) and Sian Chandler (vocals). It is released by Blue House Music on 26 February 2016.

It follows the five-song 2014 EP 'Strangers We Meet', which I mentioned here and that also featured in my best-of 2014 list in the category EPs and Mini Albums.
'Soaked To The Bone' consists of ten self-written songs and a Bob Dylan cover (albeit one more recently associated with a well-known UK female artist!) and none of these songs appeared on the aforementioned EP.  The track list for it is as follows:

• Take Me Back
• Goodbye Tomorrow
• Arclight
• Blind
• All For You
• Homesick
• Winter Moves In
• Down By The River
• Make You Feel My Love (Dylan)
• Spider and The Fly
• Clear Blue Sky

I'm not even going to try and pick a favourite here, despite having had the CD on heavy rotation for well over a fortnight now and this should tell you something about how I regard The Black Feathers. On the album they have a splendid cast of collaborating musicians including Phillip Henry (dobro) and Anna Jenkins (violin and viola). The Black Feathers are on tour in the coming weeks and live as a duo they are quite something.

Frome Cheese and Grain - 25 April 2014

I shall be going to see the pre-launch tour locally and I suggest you do so too if it is within reach - it includes dates in Inverness and Glasgow in early December. I'm sure that you will wish, and likely be able, to purchase a copy of 'Soaked To The Bone' direct from them at the time.

New Music 2015 - Part 68 - Rainbow Girls - Perceptronium

One of the greatest pleasures of having an excuse to listen to lots of new music is the surprise of discovering things totally by chance. This is why I am a habitué at the opening sets and indeed the smaller stages at festivals. That it is now the end of the outdoor festival season in the UK doesn't matter as much as perhaps it might seem it should.
Frome has plenty of new music of all kinds on offer and then there is all the rest. This is a very good example of how that, and a little serendipity, can work out when applied to the wonder that is internet radio. Yesterday I was listening to this - Hailsham FM - a transient UK broadcaster and specifically a two-hour slot hosted by Chris Giles.
The good news is that it was a Folk Is Not A Rude Word production and as such this can be listened-to from wherever you are on Mixcloud here.
Loads of good stuff on it and an eclectic mix too, so many boxes ticked, but the interview guests were an act of which I was previously unaware. Rainbow Girls.

Album 'Perceptronium' is released in the UK at midnight tonight. (Blue House Music)

How to summarise it? Well, I have already listened to it more times than might be expected and you might have spotted that I like quite a varied palette of music, from acoustic to rock via folk, roots, indie and blues amongst other things.

Sometimes mixing all this up might be a bad idea but not always. It is most certainly not some kind of musical smoothie at all. It is like the best hearty soup - dark and thickly silky between the delightful lumps of individuality. I could make some tentative comparisons but I think that I won't because I don't think that it would help you much. The track listing, indeed, might in itself be more informative so here it is:

Rainbow Girls - Perceptronium

• The Naked Song 
• She-bop Nation
• Step Down from the Mountain
• Stars
• No Girls Allowed
• Syd Barrett
• Lumière
• Yuba
• George Lassos the Moon
• Dinner Was Yellow But the Shit Was Gold
• Windy Bitches

Four female artists from California - Caitlin Gowdey, Erin Chapin, Vanessa May and Savannah Hughes - with a wealth of instruments and styles in train.

Rainbow Girls - Can We Keep This Love Alive?

This is not on the above mentioned album nor indeed is it on the début LP Sound Of Light (2013) but you might want to give that a listen too.