On first listen, the most striking thing about Furr’s songs is that you’ve heard them all before. ‘Sleepy Time in the Western World’ is pure Lennon; ‘War on Machines’ has obviously attended the Mick Jagger school of struts and wiggles; and the title track is the most uncanny Dylan impression you’re likely to hear (if Dylan wrote lyrics about, um, turning into a dog and back.)
Live review: Laura Marling supported by Jay Jay Pistolet @ The Scala, London
Arriving half way through Pete’s Roe’s set at the already incredibly crowded Scala on Tuesday, the excitement in the air was palpable. This was The Night Terror Tour’s homecoming and, after a brief trip around the UK and a longer one around the US with Mumford and Sons and Johnny Flynn, Laura Marling was back where it all began.
Herman Dune book UK December dates
Herman Dune have announced they are to return to the UK for six live dates in December.
Jay Jay Pistolet records Black Cab Session
West London retro-folkster Jay Jay Pistolet has recorded a track for Black Cab Sessions.
Album Review: Insects and Apples by Lyla Foy
Insects and Apples sits firmly on the pop side of folk-pop and nods, constantly and rather emphatically, at Kate Nash throughout its 11 tracks. It’s a fantastically varied album – Foy’s style takes in music boxes, harmonicas and the crack of biting an apple in its instrumental repertoire, occasionally creeping over to the wrong side of perky. The opening track, ‘Fly on the Wall’, is screaming out to be a sitcom theme tune and ts Kafka-gone-wrong chorus, in which she sings about being a frustrated fly/bee, is so insanely catchy it’s actually quite frightening, particularly when combined with the insane circus-act refrain. Coulrophobics beware.
Album Review: The Old Terminal by The Research
Wakefield based The Research haven’t had it easy. ‘Unpleasantness’ with former label EMI cut short what was a promising escalation into widespread acclaim, and the three-piece on their Myspace page largely attribute their relative silence throughout 2007 to ‘politics’. So it was back to square one for the band, who now find themselves in the unenviable position of jostling for space in the wings of the indie stage, alongside a wealth of other, similarly promising, acts.