Artist : New North Wales
Title : New North Wales EP
Genre : Avantgarde
Year : 2009
Date : 12/2009
Bitrate : VBR kbps
Tracks : 06
Label : Mobeer
Source : CDDA
Encoder : Lame 3.97
Length : 21:03 min
Size : 25,1 MB
Tracklist:
----------
01.Stormhead 06:18
02.Our Restless Plans 02:33
03.Snow Cello 03:08
04.The Way Back Home 03:28
05.A Step Too Far 03:32
06.Last Light 02:04
-------
21:03 min
From Boomkat:
*STRICTLY LIMITED HAND-PACKAGED CD FROM
MOBEER - 375 COPIES ONLY FOR THE WORLD
HOUSED WITH A PRINTED MOTEER BEERMAT,
EACH COPY INDIVIDUALLY NUMBERED AND
ASSEMBLED* Of all the bands related to
the whole Hood/Remote Viewer axis,
Empress have always been in many ways
closest to our hearts. Their fragile
blend of simple, broken songwriting and
deceptively intricate production has an
effect on us unlike anything else that
comes to mind, and the few Remote Viewer
(and even fewer Hood songs) that feature
Empress singer Nicola Hodgkinson always
find themselves jumping the playlist
queue round these parts. Anyway, after a
good few years hiding away somewhere at
the other end of the planet, Chris Coyle
and Nicola Hodgkinson at long last make
a return, now re-grouped as New North
Wales and delivering by far the most
anticipated release on the ever-charming
mobeer imprint with 6 sublime new songs.
'Stormhead' ambles into life with a
combination of world-weary acoustic
guitar arpeggios and suitably morose
piano phrases, setting up Hodgkinson to
whisper in your ear: "There's something
to this sun/That makes the heart grow
cold." Instantly, New North Wales
resituate you in their melancholy,
slowcore universe where summer is an
unwelcome intruder on that familiar
emotional perma-winter. As the title
intimates, 'Snow Cello' finds the duo
far more at home; it's an especially
resonant piece, all filled up with vinyl
crackle, broken strings and a strangely
comforting tale of heartbreak.
Continuing with this stark, emotionally
brittle theme is 'The Way Back Home',
full of groaning floorboards, creaking
violins and the desolate refrain of
"Bring me back home". Although the
gentle, disheveled pluckings and
generally quite upbeat strains of 'Our
Restless Plans' and 'A Step Too Far'
bring a much needed lightness to certain
corners of this beautiful EP, the disc
ends with a fittingly forlorn
instrumental: 'Last Light' flirts with
warmth and chamber folk loveliness,
setting major-key guitar melodies
against twinkling xylophone, yet still
there's an overwhelmingly wistful feel
to it all - something underlined by the
slow unevenness of the bow strokes
colouring its quivering strings. This is
an outstanding release for Mobeer,
leaving you craving much, much more
after just twenty minutes or so of
great, intimate recordings. It's a shame
that so few of you will get to have one
of these gorgeous little packages - you
know what you need to do if you don't
wanna miss out.
http://www.mobeer.co.uk/