Melanie McGovern
Formerly the project of Luke Temple, Brooklyn’s Here We Go Magic has now expanded into a five-piece, and since signing to record label Secretly Canadian just a year ago they have gone on to tour with the likes of Grizzly Bear and The Walkmen, as well as receiving praise from none other than Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, who stated of their Glastonbury performance, that it was the best thing he’d witnessed all weekend.
The closing night of the three-day Campfire Trails event at East London’s The Troxy was highly anticipated enough for hosting bluegrassers Old Crow Medicine Show and their frequent touring partners Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings, and yet Friday, rounding off two prior evenings headlined by The Felice Brothers and Wild Beasts respectively; culminated in a ferocious display of musical talent and surprise special guests, making this one of the live performance highlights of the year – not to mention hugely surpassing most punters already sky …
Rachael Dadd is seated onstage at North London’s The Luminaire, arranged on a table beside her is a collection of crockery and three sets of chopsticks. It is an interesting experimental set up that I’m lucky enough to watch blossom into a spontaneous, twinkling performance of a new song that she tells me is inspired by her husband’s cooking of rice.
Despite musical beginnings a decade ago in Athens, Georgia under the moniker Fillup Shack, Matthew Houck’s better known Phosphorescent guise only recently crept out of the woodwork with acclaimed 2007 LP Pride, the lo-fi, haunted tones of which earmarked him as an artist of a similar highly praised songwriting stature to Will Oldham and Iron & Wine’s Samuel Beam.
“Before, I was pretty lost. Really unhappy. For years. A lot of times I didn’t want to leave my apartment because I felt too self-conscious”, Matt Bauer once confessed. This may, in part, explain why this Brooklyn-based banjo player sings the way he does, in a gruff whisper that is, more often than not, softer than that of his female vocal contributor Dana Falconberry. It’s a tone so hushed that …
Soft Landing are a Brooklyn-based three-piece comprised of Beirut’s Paul Collins and Perrin Cloutier; together with pal Mike Lawless. Forming during a touring hiatus from Zach Condon’s collective, they played together day and night, perfecting these Brazilian born tracks that were later recorded with producer and Icy Demons frontman Griffin Rodriguez; in Chicago this January.
The Gallery Cafe in Bethnal Green provided the quaintest, cosiest, homeliest of performances from David Dondero on Saturday night. With a cluster of people gathered around half a dozen candle-lit tables it was perhaps even for Dondero himself, so used as he is to playing bars and small grimy venues, something of a quintessentially English change; this little rustic cafe complete with terrace, fairy lights and the odd few punters …
When Hi54lofi Records, based in Edmonton, Canada contacted us, linking their website we felt like we’d struck oil: a mountain of music from all over the globe, that unless your were an agoraphobic, insomniac no amount of Myspace/Lastfm/YouTube trawling would help you track down all the brilliant artists they cite. They aren’t really a record label as such, just a bunch of like minded folk hoping to spread the word about music they …
These three girls may appear the female counterpart to Robin Pecknold and Co. with their Appalachian revivalist vocals and hauntingly authentic folk, but there is something much stronger behind their whisperings. Mountain Man is comprised of Molly Erin Sarle, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig and Amelia Randall Meath who, having met at Bennington College, Vermont, began a transformation into the sound that they describe as “a creature growing from [their] mouths”. Upon hearing Molly playing what was later to become “Dog …
Canadian three-piece Plants and Animals indeed prove themselves to be chameleons of sorts in their ability to cross genres with little to no flicker of discomfort or hesitation. Melding post-punk, psychedelia, folk, and classic 70s rock; their compositions are as adaptable in style as the chameleon to his surroundings – and are commanded with a complete sense of authenticity. While their live shows are hailed across the small board of almost cult-status followers with …
Scottish/English folk band Lau started out back in 2004 in Edinburgh, and have since become one of Britain’s most highly acclaimed young folk bands: a status assuredly justified with their ‘Best Group’ winnings at the BBC Radio Two Folk Awards for three years running. Their 90-minute set at Cargo was met with whoops and howls of friends and family, old fans and new listeners instantly captivated by intricate jigs and …
Swedish sisters First Aid Kit’s “Happy 10th Birthday Wichita” show at The Garage proved the pair, still under 20 years old, to be growing masters of the narrative driven story songs they grew up listening to. We caught up with Klara and Johanna Söderberg before their show for a brief chat about Swedish folk music, their influences and plans to expand their line up:
The Communion Collaborations sprung out of a desire to continue on with the Communion franchise of home grown, generally London based, musicians. The night which began at the Notting Hill Arts Club in 2006 has been hugely successful in acting as a springboard for local musicians; catapulting the likes of Mumford & Sons and Laura Marling to fame.