"The eccentric creativity of Daniel Johnston with the voice of a dying cat" is how I recently described the sound of King of Cats for a gig listing (although the second part of that description was duly edited out) and, for a rushed one-liner, I think it gives a pretty decent idea of what to expect from Oxford/Brghton-based 19-year-old Max Levy. With a guitar in hand and his unique and oddly effective voice, Max crafts interesting and intelligent - if slightly weird - songs that feel honest and born out of a need to just make music.
And his SoundCloud page is certainly testament to both his urge to write and write and write and his, let's call it, 'unusual' nature - with over 30 tracks penned and uploaded in the last 12 months, with titles ranging from 'Zombie in a well nailed coffin' to 'I stink of human feces'. The most recent of his numerous recordings are set to be released through new DIY label Reeks Of Effort (a label collective run by members of Joanna Gruesome, Playlounge, YRRS, and more) and I'm absolutely in love with them. Seldom does a man and his guitar sound so interesting and compelling - really good songs with vocals that I really enjoy. Listen for yourself with an open mind below, or stream the whole thing on Reeks of Effort's bandcamp.
Coming from Philadelphia, and currently on tour with Asobi Seksu, White Birds write pop songs. Wonderful, wonderful pop songs. Pop songs built on harmonies and guitar distortion, influenced by The Beach Boys, and Fleet Foxes. And as easy as it'd be for this kind of combination to be predictable, dull, and paint-by-numbers - it's not. It's beautiful, it's charming, it's delightful - and they have a cassette out now on Grizzly Records. Limited to 100 copies, odds are it's already sold out given how ruddy ace they sound.
Sometimes it's the most unsuspecting of things in life that turn out to be some of the best and most refreshing - like an email I got from artist Alex Steward, who also goes by the name Umber. He asked me if I might be interesting in the ambient/folk music that he makes on his own. That's about all the information I got. Turns out that Alex might either be a bit modest or completely unaware at how just how impressive the music he makes is.
As This Is Fake DIY mentioned in the First On piece on Umber earlier this month or as Music Fan's Mic echoed, this 'ambient/folk' music is so much more than those two words might suggest. Far from the acoustic singer-songwriter drivel that one might expect, Umber's sound is minimal, stunning and frankly beautiful. Kind of the meeting place of post-rock and folk, guitar twangs gently besides delicate layers of piano, violin and slight electronic noise to create sounds laid back but entirely encapsulating. It's music that you want to listen to alone in the dark with no distractions and just get lost in its beauty.
Lead singer of sprawling post-rock-cum-big-pop band Among Brothers (featured here) and (recently ex) guitarist for hardcore five piece Goodtime Boys, Cardiff based Alex Comana’s solo stuff shows him edging into new musical territory less explored by his bands.
Hints of the likes of Bon Iver and Real Estate pop up in the only recording I’ve heard of his solo stuff so far; his song Apnea showing he’s no plain old singer-songwriter aiming to bore you to sleep. Five minutes of intelligent and emotive folk with self-harmonised vocals, well put together acoustic guitar/banjo strums and plucks, and some moments of piano, electric guitar and wind instruments adding texture and depth. Pretty nice, and perhaps a fairly pleasant track to eat a Valentine's meal to.
The height of twee folk's popularity has been and gone, probably to a fair few people's relief - typical boy-girl harmonies, acoustic guitar strums, glockenspiel pings, cutesy lyrics, but too often had little imagination behind them. What can occur when a 'scene' fizzles out, though, is that all the popularity-chasing bands pack up shop and head on to new, now-hip ventures, leaving only those genuine bands from the lesser-popular genre standing.
Curly Hair were never really your typical boring twee folk/folk pop duo, but could have been lumped in with the movement given their male/female harmonies, acoustic guitar, and odd use of glock, (plus the fact that the male vocalist sometimes wore a scout shirt to gigs). The statement that they weren't in it for the popularity can now be said with a little more confidence now, given that plenty of other folk acts have up and chased the surfy/lo-fi thing (Lightspeed Champion's second album, Jay Jay Pistolet in The Vaccines, etc), whereas Brighton's Curly Hair stay true to their name, still plugging away at the music that their love is genuine for.
I don't know that much about Curly Hair. Not even the number of official band members. The photo above suggests five, their MySpace profile picture suggests just the one, when I saw them live it was two, and plenty of other live photos show three. To be perfectly honest, I'd almost forgot of their existence until an email from Toy Soldier Records plopped into my inbox with a new free song, thanks to the recent snow forcing the cancellation of a gig. But I do know that their lo-fi folk-y sounds, the male-female vocals, the occasional high pitched keyboard tones, out-loud metronome, and glock, as well as their pop sensibilities make me very happy.
Download (the lovely) High Fives, Low Fives taken from debut EP (from 2009) Ivy League from The Line Of Best Fit here, or stream and download (the older) Blow The House Down and (the brand new) demo Plentiful Is The Choir below.
I quite like the thought of musicians recording in their bedrooms. I like the thought of Mums interrupting recordings with a cup of tea. I like the thought of neighbours getting annoyed by/enjoying the songs through the paper thin walls. I even like the thought of the toilet flush going in the background. It somehow makes the music seem more real when you know the people making it are sat on their bed with their laptop besides them, rather than in studios being looped, paused, corrected, auto-tuned etc in a studio. And it almost makes good songs that come out of this process that little bit more impressive. Imagine what they could do given all the fancy equipment.
I recently came across two musicians that do as described (although I can't comment as to whether their Mums' are kind enough to make them imprompteu cups of tea) through two BBC Radio presenters; Adam Walton and Bethan Elfyn. Adam played David Newington on his show a few weeks back and Bethan Elfyn wrote a blog post about Ivan's growing popularity around Cardiff's open mic shows. And although both do use acoustic guitars and both do make (at least some) of their stuff in their bedrooms, they both display a lot of talent and a real knack for song-writing in the limited number of songs that are available from them so far.
We'll start with Ivan. As I mentioned, I got the tip about Ivan from a Bethan Elfyn blog (which was originally sent to me by Taz, my SU newspaper editor - cheers!), and, as part of my search of UWIC bands, gave his stuff a good listen, and met up with him for an interview (the results of which can be found here). His songs have a really dreamy element to them, and his slightly husky-yet-soothing vocals suit the sound well. His music is very honest (apparently he nearly had some confrontation regarding a song he had written about someone in particular), and it reminds me slightly of Johnny Flynn, only less heavy (if you can possibly call Johnny Flynn "heavy"). It's difficult to pigeon-hole, but Ivan's music can certainly be called folk in one way or another. If you want to know more about Ivan, and you live in the Cardiff area then you are in luck. Ivan gigs tonnes around Cardiff and it'd be hard to miss him. Head to his MySpace to listen to his recently completed debut EP and to find out more about him for yourself. Ivan is also part of Cardiff indie pop group The School (who recently released their debut album), for those interested in checking them out, also.
David Newington's music I heard, on the other hand, without any research needed; on Adam Walton's show a few weeks back. I really enjoyed what I heard, but I also felt motivated to add him to MySpace following Adam Walton's challenge involving just that (David has a sligtly odd and difficult-ish to find URL). I'm glad I did bother to find it though - I was really impressed by the other tracks up on there. "Another Summer Song" has a really nice, lazy feel to it, and, although it isn't necessariyl that folk-y, you can imagine yourself chewing some straw/tobacco whilst walking through corn fields listening to it. The guitar plods along pleasantly with Newington's ever-so-slightly distorted vocals. Speaking of which, David's vocals, especially on "To The River", remind me a lot of Graham Coxon (think more his newer folk album than older punk-y stuff). And "Midnight Shop" opens to a menacing acoustic guitar line which reminds me a little of The Moldy Peaches and features a whistling line I like to join along with. I'm hoping to hear more of David in the next few months, I think he has the potential to have a strong future ahead of him. For more info, head to David's MySpace, and have a listen to and download some of his tracks below (with permission) for free. Find Ivan's stuff below also.
Like Gallops, I've long been a fan of Meilir's work. In fact I think I first saw Meilir supporting Gallops, softening the crowd with his experimental take on folk music. I recently conducted an e-mail interview with the Cardiff-based singer-songwriter for my uni newspaper, which can now be found online here.
His debut EP is well worth checking out (there are probably still some copies left at Spiller's Records in Cardiff) for Meilir's haunting vocal work and unique methods to make his music - expect the odd electro-beat and a fair amount of foot-scraped-gravel to accompany acoustic guitar, piano, and a mixture of both English and Welsh vocals. To get a sample of his work and to find out when and where Meilir is playing live, head to his MySpace page here.
"The eccentric creativity of Daniel Johnston with the voice of a dying cat" is how I recently described the sound of King of Cats for a gig listing (although the second part of that description was duly edited out) and, for a rushed one-liner, I think it gives a pretty decent idea of what to expect from Oxford/Brghton-based 19-year-old Max Levy. With a guitar in hand and his unique and oddly effective voice, Max crafts interesting and intelligent - if slightly weird - songs that feel honest and born out of a need to just make music.
