Those on the London folk scene rightly think the big city is hot shit for the best new folk music. But while the sun is shining and the holidays are approaching, you may tire of the concrete and exhaust fumes and yearn for some country life. Well you are in luck. Insert piece of straw in mouth and  pint of scrumpy in your hand and get on down to Barn On The Farm festival in Gloucesterhire for some folk music that knows where it’s from!

Brand new Gloucester festival Barn On The Farm (www.barnonthefarm.moonfruit.com) launches this week, and its folk-filled lineup is sure to offer the kind of ramshackle hoedown to be remembered and talked about for a long time to come. The festival will be taking place in the grounds of Over Farm in Gloucester next month – see www.overfarmmarket.co.uk – from Friday 23rd to Sunday 25th July.
This ultra-intimate festival is limited to just 200 tickets, and they’re selling fast! Priced at just £30 for the whole weekend, all profits from the festival go to two very important charities - Global Footsteps (www.global-footsteps.org) and Friends of Nowder (www.friendsofnowder.org), both of which support social, economic and environmental sustainability projects globally.
The festival will be headlined by Communion’s Matthew & The Atlas, with the rest of the lineup looking just as stunning:
MATTHEW AND THE ATLAS - www.myspace.com/matthewandtheatlas
FRANK HAMILTON - www.myspace.com/frankhamiltonband
ADELAIDE’S CAPE - www.myspace.com/adelaidescape
THOM STONE - www.myspace.com/superthom
SPINDLE & WIT - www.myspace.com/spindleandwit
LINDSAY WEST - www.myspace.com/lindsaywest
D-FINITIVE - www.myspace.com/dfinitive
JASPER - www.myspace.com/jaspertunes
LOVE.STOP.REPEAT - www.myspace.com/lovestoprepeat
AIMEE BEA - www.myspace.com/aimeebeanice
JON FAZAL - www.myspace.com/jonfazal
NEW FOLK UNIT - www.youtube.com/user/BetweenYouandMeMusic#p/u/1/I0wS4t6etIw

Share this article on facebook and leave your comments below! EH.

WICHITA RECORDINGS CELEBRATE 10 YEARS OF GREAT MUSIC

To find out more about Wichita’s birthday celebrations visit there page HERE

Album: De Lux

Out: 01.04.10

5/5

‘De Lux’ is the debut solo album from Jack Hancock. It is an intriguing amalgam of styles and genres which will leave a pleasant taste on the palette of all those who like to hear the sound of someone truly exploring what their chosen medium can offer.

Opening with the hypnotic ripple of guitars on Metropolis Ante Meridiem, which is reminiscent of folktronica acts such as Kieran Hebden’s Four Tet, or Tunng we find ourselves in a sonic world where the sensibilities Hancock cultivated in Bristol post-grunge band Bent Echo have been combined with a variety of influences that range from the gypsy jazz licks of ‘The Caper and The Getaway’ to the sparse soundscapes of pieces such as ‘Parasola’ that brings to mind the work of post-rockers like Explosions In The Sky.

That an album free of lyrics can be so emotive and contain such narrative is testament to the skills of Hancock’s compositions and proof of the fact that this is the work of a man who rather than having nothing to say, is letting the music do the talking. Each track demands to be judged on its own terms, whilst very much being part of an album that has a cohesive thread running through it.

‘De Lux’ is an album that earns your attention rather than screaming for it. An intimate a piece of storytelling that hints at silver linings in a clouded world of musical film noir. So for all those who enjoy hearing the sound of someone partaking in a journey and delighting in the telling, ‘De Lux’ is a story well worth the listen.

Jacob de Berker

‘De Lux’ is available from all major digital music retailers from 01.04.10

You can listen to and buy ‘De Lux’ direct from the artist HERE

The single ‘Parasola’ is available for free download and comes with a remix of album track ‘Metropolis Ante Meridiem’ by Jack In Water. HERE

Myspace

Last.fm

Read The Ear Horn review of ‘The Big Black and the Blue’ HERE

The official video for the single can be found HERE

And you can see a live performance of the track from their album play-back show in London HERE

Read Katherine Rodgers’ interview with Lail Arad at The Music Box

Fanfarlo release a new single, “Harold T Wilkins” exclusively via Rough Trade shops as a limited edition deluxe 7” vinyl THIS WEEK featuring the b-side, “Comets”.

Watch the band performing the single on Carson Daly from last weeks show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVtS7QZpueE

Following the band’s recent sold-out UK tour, culminating in a rapturous performance at London’s ULU, Fanfarlo announce details of a free digital EP. They have made available 4 live tracks, “The Walls Are Coming Down”, “Finish Line”, “I’m A Pilot” and a cover of Bonnie Prince Billy’s “A Minor Place”, as a free download via their site www.fanfarlo.com

Check out The Ear Horn review of ‘Harold T. Wilkins’ HERE

It is an unfortunate fact that in the quest to get a grasp on the best new music, One invariably has to wade through a mountain of god-awful rubbish. It gets so bad sometimes that even the half decent stuff sounds crap because the senses get weary from the constant abuse.

Occasionally though a new release comes along that is so vibrant and fresh that it reignites the passion. A timely reminder that all is not lost, there are still light years of unexplored space for new music to discover, and brave artists out there on the frontier that have the courage and inspiration to stake out new territories in which to spread their wings.

For this enlightened romantic discourse I have to thank You Are Wolf and her new E.P. ‘Hunting Little Songs’. From a starting point of traditional English folk, You Are Wolf has created a record that is refreshingly original. The compositions are centered around the layering of vocals in a rich collage with minimal instrumentation. The delivery is in the style of a beat poet lost in the renaissance period with no possessions and a distant memory of hearing Bjork’s ‘Medula’

The dominance of vocal sounds makes ‘Hunting Little Songs’ an intensely personal experience. And the potency of the lyrical content can hardly go unnoticed from the ghostly adaption of traditional song ‘Lucy Wan’ to the wonderfully dark and carnivorous ‘Sednastory’ which tells the story of Sedna, the daughter of giants, “One night her parents awoke aghast to find her gobbling on their limbs, So her father took her out to sea.” The depth of the imagery You Are Wolf conjures up is magical and macabre, it is a joy to get absorbed in the eerie storytelling.

The best thing about this E.P. is that it makes little effort to be accessible yet it is ultimately easy to listen to and quick to guide you into the alternative reality that it creates. ‘Hunting Little Songs’ is totally compelling, an absolute gem for listeners feeling jaded and world weary, it will feel like an invigorating breath of fresh air.

Check out You Are Wolf’s website HERE

There will be a launch party for ‘Hunting Little Songs’ at the Gallery Cafe in Bethnal Green on 25th March.

photo by Dannie Price

]]> http://earhorn.co.uk/?feed=rss2&p=368 0 http://earhorn.co.uk/?p=360 http://earhorn.co.uk/?p=360#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:03:59 +0000 The Ear Horn © http://earhorn.co.uk/?p=360 Little Death
‘World Wont Wait’ – Single
Released 03.03.10: Rating 4/5

A shift is coming. You may not have noticed it yet but if you walk around Shoreditch and put your ear to the ground you’ll hear the distant rumble of change. As the first dose of sunshine bursts forth from the sky and illuminates the trendy hordes you will see that the light is refracted at a slightly different angle. The Ear Horn Oracle is all in a fluster, let it be foretold here first, we are about to witness The Return of Grunge.

There is surely still some fuel left in the synth heavy glitter pop tank. After all Lady Gaga is woman who means business and it is clear that she intends to stick around for a good while to come. However if the future of femtronica is left in the hands of Ellie Goulding and Marina and the Diamonds then surely even the most die hard scenester will be considering trading in thier stilletos for Dr. Marten’s in protest.

In the pages of Pop and Vogue you can already see a reinvention of heroin chic. A new grunge movement is written in the cards and spearheading this revivial, it would appear, are Little Death whose single ‘World Wont Wait’ is available now for free download.

Sludgy guitars, scruffy t-shirts, bleached hair and a vague nod to psychedelia. Drums so beautifully intense that they will stir up some left over angst in even the most jaded of souls. ‘World Won’t Wait’ sounds just like the Smashing Pumpkins circa ‘Machina’ only a bit more British. And it’s about bloody time too!

It may be a little early to get excited about Little Death yet. ‘World Won’t Wait’ sounds ace but the band are treading on the thin ice of pastiche. If they can pull off an album that can rejuvenate the 90’s sound with some new grit chucked in then best of luck to them, a warm reception awaits.

‘World Wont Wait’ can be downloaded for free HERE

Have a listen and share your thoughts in the comments section below!

You see, the thing is, I have this Sony Discman. I’ve had it for years and use it all the time. A set of Energizer batteries last for the best part of a year and the thing never breaks down. Now call me old fashioned but if it aint broke…

So I burn a lot of CD’s and I choose which ones to carry about with me when I go out. I take a great amount of pleasure in the whole affair. A pleasure that I think is augmented by the  nostalgia that is growing around it like moss on a forgotten artifact. And because I enjoy it and for no other reason I bring you this mini featurette in which I humbly share with you which discs are spinning on my Discman as I traipse around London.

03.03.10 Wednesday

Vampire Weekend – Contra.

I wasn’t expecting to like this album, I’m generally wary of bands that get plastered on billboards all across town. But there is something undeniably positive about Contra that I just couldn’t ignore. It’s a total blag of Paul Simon’s ‘Graceland’ but I still don’t care! Contra is ace.

02.03.10 Tuesday.

Today we have :

John Frusciante – To Record Only Water For Ten Days

A Camp – Colonia

You Are Wolf – Hunting Little Songs (I’ve just been sent this and it is really great, The Ear Horn review coming soon!)

It’s been a fine old while since Joanna Newsom’s last album ‘Y’s’. A new release has been hotly anticipated and hotly anticipated some more, for Newsom fans are a dedicated breed. Despite the kooky harpist’s elusivity (she doesn’t even have her own website,) she has a generation of folkies, music lovers and musicians eating out of the palm of her hand.  She must have wanted us hungry. And hungry we were, but the wait is finally over. Here is ‘Have One On Me’ and it is a beast! A gargantuan three disc, triple whammy with a run time of two straight hours! Newsom clearly isn’t the same shy young lady she was back in her ‘Milk Eyed Mender’ days. Her press photos are all long legs and red lip pouts and her distinctive squeaky yelp of a vocal style has developed into a smooth, melodic and versatile vessel that carries melodies with confidence and supports some very interesting harmony flourishes.

Newsom has really come of age as a professional musician. Her trademark imagination and creativity is now fully augmented by technical skill and polish. That said, and without detriment to her unique talents, it has to be observed that ‘Have One On Me’ is a bit of a handful. It’s extensive run time is something of an indulgence. While most of the hankering masses will surely relish in this abundance, the record lacks the immediacy and raw edge that was so appealing on ‘Milk Eyed Mender.’ For those that found ‘Y’s’ less engaging ‘Have One On Me’ has definitely moved onwards in the same direction.

So some people might think that and that’s fine, objectivity has been dealt with, now lets get down to the gushing praise! Here in the Ear Horn camp we loved ‘Y’s’ and we love this too. This may be the most beautiful and affecting record ever released. Newsom’s new voice is down right stunning, it outshines even her glorious harp playing. The orchestral arrangements are perfect in their subtlety. Graceful and understated, consistently adding potency to the songs without ever overcrowding or overbearing.

There is an almost super-human level of attention to detail on this record. As a whole it has the depths of vast oceans. Time must be set aside for this, it is a journey to be embarked upon and I really do feel there is a lifetime of mileage in this work and at the time of writing this review I have barely scratched the surface of appreciating it. It is nothing short of being a masterpiece, probably one of the finest albums ever recorded. I cannot rate it highly enough. Delightful.

Tell us how much you love it in the Comments section below!