Album available for preorder
Edinburgh’s not exactly ‘hotting up’, as we have had a very damp and unprepossessing summer. But the festival circus is about to hit town, posters are going up, the unique festival aroma of stale beer, glitter, popcorn and rain will soon be perfuming the air of Auld Reekie; and I have the next tidbit of choice underground music for you.
I first heard William D Drake at a festival in Stroud, one of my top gigs of 2012, Eppyfest, put on by the indefatigable Eppy Gibbon whose podcast is a must. I had never heard anything remotely like his music. Lurching chord progressions, medieval instruments, haunting melodies, slightly surreal lyrics, all coloured by a very British sort of aesthetic. If we want to get into labels, I suppose it’s on the prog side, but it’s not fiddly for fiddle’s sake. When I want to listen to something that I know is going to instantly immerse me in another world and relieve me of any burdensome thoughts, the album he promoted on that tour, The Rising of the Lights, is one I reach for. I was therefore very excited to hear he was releasing a new album, Revere Reach, and that is my recommendation for this week. William D Drake used to be in the Cardiacs, for any punk proggers among you. Revere Reach has melodies, a pinch of folk, acoustic instruments mixed together with a chamber ensemble sensibility, and lush soundscapes into which you can plunge at will. Have a stream of it here.
In other news, S T E M S is a contemporary folk project that Edinburgh songwriter Kirsten Adamson, self, and Anne (candythief cellist) co-write on, and it’s different-sounding to any of our respective bands. S T E M S has had some material used as soundtrack for screen, and it does have that atmospheric quality that lends itself to that. For anyone in Edinburgh, we have a festival gig coming up on 12th August at a brand new secret house concert location. It has quite limited capacity but we do still have a few spaces. S T E M Swill be teaming up with Adam Holmes And The Embers (actually, just Adam and an incredibly cool sidekick, Mog) to host a very intimate house concert set from a beautiful, 4 story, traditional Georgian townhouse.
Glimpses of the secret city centre location can be seen in STEMS video “Travel In Mind’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8htlt6DwhQ
Please email us at stemsmelody@gmail.com or Facebook message at the event page here direct if you’d like us to save you a space.
In the meantime, enjoy Revere Reach!
Candythief have some news coming shortly, and we’ve been doing some filming, and I have acquired a taste for armour ! All wil be revealed in Due Course.
XDiana
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