MP3: The Accidental - Illuminated Red

“If I leave… just before… the empire falls… we might find the occasion…. to dance upon those city walls”

Part-Tunng and part-Fence-Collective members: all sorts of well fitting, well oiled and manufactured parts contribute a little part of their musical heart to a greater good. Part-bear? Part-Solider? No. It’s subtle and soulful, not brutal and dark-brown. The strings give this folk song life and vibrancy. Don’t think they’ll be cheering at the side of the confetti parade though: just glad to see everyone’s smiling again.

‘Illuminated Red’ is off of their debut album There Were Wolves, which is out in April.

http://www.myspace.com/theaccidental

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Posts here have been thin on the ground of late due to exams but posting will return to two or three times a week for the considerable future.

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Photo credit: pincharrata

Tags: Folk, Johnny 5 Is Alive by Mike Smith
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MP3: The Matinee Orchestra - Hide And Seek

“Hide and Seek” is a fantastic way to start February. Forget the showers! Don’t cower! The spring is coming. Expect it! “Hide and Seek” is also big sounds and samples delivered this morning through a soaking shower of lost, organic and journeying acoustic instruments looking for a place to roost (but enjoying a pre-dusk flight. As much as birds enjoy flight; Which I think they do, Very much). Or maybe: Sesame Street go an a field trip to Iceland*, enjoying the landscape and becoming very human for a moment.

* Yes, Sigur Ros comparisons are welcome here - here, the richness and atmosphere are well translated to a whisper and an echo.

myspace.com/matineeorchestra

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As mentioned a couple of days ago, I’ve been nominated for an NME award: “Best Music Blog”. I forget to say that it’s down to a public vote. You can vote for me at NME.com. (You need to be registered to vote. Registration is free. Voting is not compulsory for your continued enjoyment of this site.)

No news of an awards ceremony invite yet, I guess they just send a helicopter on the night to pick up nominees.

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Photo credit: Omarrun @ Flickr.

Tags: Best of NBGL, Folk, Johnny 5 Is Alive, Not London by Mike Smith
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MP3: Mathew Sawyer and The Ghosts - Love will come to town
(London, 2:48mins, 128 kbps)

He sounds so wise, and like all the pictures we paint of sages and village elders he’s probably shorter than you and he won’t look you in the eyes until he really means it. Mathew Sawyer sings a song of directness and prints the important points of the song in big bold letter, set wide, all the way across the road. The vocal trembling but the stature of the song is great, held up and backed up by a tall gang of violins, percussion, and voices you can just hear over the wind.

Mathew Sawyer seems, at first glance, to be a folk song writer with a feather in his hat, singing songs that make you quiver with optimism about the potential, despite the quiet roads, silent stores and empty seats.

myspace.com/theghostsmyspace

Stolen Records | CatBird told me about this guy, and his record label released the album stateside.

Tags: Folk, Johnny 5 Is Alive, London by Mike Smith
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MP3: Vashti Bunyan - I’d Like To Walk Around In Your Mind
(London, 2:16mins, 160 kbps)

‘I’d like to walk’ is soulful, and isolated in the way you look upwards on a clear day and there she is, hovering in the sky, half transparent, a voice as light as clouds, paintings images of regret, love and pink sugar elephants between the stars, through the wind; you will forget these songs quickly, but pick them up often.

Vashti Bunyan recently presented us with an album of some of her demos and singles from 1964-1967, but her lighter and compelling psych-folk demos are hardly cast offs, and exist on the edge of a nonchalant side of pop music that just has to be the rooted in the 1960s. ‘I’d like to walk around in your mind’ is track 7 out of 25 blissful and spookish tracks that are rich and lonely in an exposed, and honest sort of way. Its hardly dynamic but this isn’t an album concerned with quick judgements and spontaneity, but with romanticism and thoughts that last for a decade: hardly a eureka moment: this takes time to rise, set, and come to fruition.

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“Some things just stick in your Mind”, released a month ago, highlights an extraordinary raw talent, a few years before her seminal release “Just a diamond day”.

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Indie Pan-Pipes for your it’s almost Friday, so it’s almost the weekend, mid-week blues/ feigned optimism

Tags: Folk, Johnny 5 Is Alive by Mike Smith
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MP3: Ray Rumours - Tomorrow
(London, 1:44 mins, 192 kbps, 2.4MB)

MP3: Ray Rumours - Dance of the Ghosts
(London 2:07 mins, 96 kbps, 1.5MB)

1. First listen to Tomorrow, then play Dance Of The Ghosts - they intersect, hold hands, clink glasses and walk in step with no difficulty. Together Ray Rumours folk music shimmers, and shocks you into thoughts of problems usually left hidden under stresses and strains, this is the music of anticipated release and complete freedom “Every problem can be solved… just give it some time”.

2. “Tomorrow” is the warm up, the prep, it’ll make your mind process colourful images twice as fast when you properly get up to speed. The guitar is cobweb thin, harp-like, and a thing to marvel at.

THREE: “Dance of the Ghosts” is slowing down to make sure you catch up, and once you have, you’ll wonder why you ever walked slowly, and was so interested in the ground passing underneath your feet. LOOK UP & 4WDS 4EVER! It’s says in bold type.

4. Ray Rumours was the bassist in the fantastic-but-currently-hiatused Electrelane who played an incredible set before the Beastie Boys this summer.

V. Ray Rumours have had releases with, and have played with/ featured on the same label as Francois, Sleeping States and Caz Mechanic, all bands that I raved out on NBGL in the past year. Buy at Tome, More at Myspace

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“I love the music of the “freak folk” scene - Devendra Banhart, Animal Collective, Iron & Wine, Joanna Newsom, etc. What rap music would I like?” [answers]

Tags: Best of NBGL, Folk, Johnny 5 Is Alive by Mike Smith
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