Singles Bar -The BeauBowBelles vs. Emporium vs. Femme
THE BEAUBOWBELLES
To The Moon
BeauBowBelles
Well, this is rather sweet. Proper folk with tunes, melodies, harmonies and the odd moment of fiddling heedurum-hodurum on the splendid ‘These Days’. So, a big well done to Bertie Anderson – vocals, violin, Emma Price – vocals, flutes, accordion, bells, Ros Wilks – vocals, violin, keytar and Marcus Daborn – guitar, kickdrum.
Yes, this is my favourite folk EP of the year, and if you give the video that’s down at the bottom somewhere a spin, I’m sure it will be yours too. They can do melancholic as well, as a listen to the title track will attest. And even though I don’t normally approve of things furrin, the ‘Alien Tango’ almost made me a convert.
You can download it from Amazon, or buy a real, actual CD by going to their web site. And you should.
EMPORIUM
Magical Things
Whimsical Records
Ostensibly, a lo-fi indie pop band, Scotch music makers Emporium often tip over into the world of fey psych singer songwritery type things, and this is one of those things.
It’s a remixed version of the tune from their most recent album “The Afterlife”, and would make anyone into swirly things and Spangles a very happy man / woman. Of course, being an awkward sod, it was the B-side ‘Mind Games’ that made my toes tingle in a very bleak manner. But as top tunes go, these are top.
I’m not entirely sure where you would get it from, but you can download the album version from Amazon (which is also on this EP) or try their record label. Get in touch with them on Faceboak.
FEMME
Educated / Double Trouble
Tape Music
And now for some urban dance hippity hop groove dun type things. Or whatever it is The Kids call it these days. Seems that Femme is the alter ego of South London based vocalist and producer Laura Bettinson who used to be in Dimbleby & Capper, then became part of Ultraista, alongside Radiohead’s long-term producer Nigel Godrich and multi-instrumentalist / drummer Joey Waronker. So there.
Means nothing to me, but ‘Educated’ is a bit of a tune, that had the non-arthritic parts of my leg twitching with enjoyment, even if it was a bit trip hoppy. Then things go into the slow cooker for a meandering synth driven ditty which isn’t as immediate, but sounds like the kind of thing you’d be happy to hear at 2am when you were coming down of goatamine, assuming that’s still in, and not so last week.
Again, you can download from Amazon, or buy a CD from Bandcamp. And in case you were wondering, that’s what the youngsters used to play music from, before the invention of the shitty mobile phone speaker.
The BeauBowBelles video
The Rocker 