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James Reid
Like A Buzzard Chased By Crows ep | |
 Although the nations woodland is now more closely associated with Bill Oddie, dogging and The Countryside Alliance; theres an elusive strain of British folk music thats been creeping gently through the undergrowth since the days of Fairport Convention and Nick Drake. And listening to the many textures of James Reids pastoral musings, its clear that there are still a few undiscovered glades out there with more to discover than the odd discarded Snickers wrapper.
Recorded mainly at home using little more than guitars, mandolins, pipes, woodblocks, glass bottles, home-made wine and an eight-track, James claims to capture the essence of folk tales of new and old. And true enough, the Fife singer/songwriter manages to conjure up plenty of rustic magic across the six tracks on Like A Buzzard Chased By Crows. For starters, instrumental opener Our Poor Lone Kestrel sets a tone of delicate mystery as overlapping guitar lines bring a feeling of growing uncertainty. Is the kestrel lost? Is he looking for his mate? Is he worried hes left the gas on? Who knows.
Things get sprightlier with the sparse, ethereal grace of Kingfisher Blue and the joyous shanty charms of Sunrise Bound. Their spiralling rhythms have more than a touch of the dizzyingly off-kilter folk of The Wicker Man. In fact, you could quite easily imagine Britt Ekland mincing around in the nip to this one.
Conversely, the majestic Two Crows fills its eight-plus minutes with husky layered vocals and a sense of drama thats full of the heady scent of Led Zeppelin III. Yet its on Time Of Autumn (Hedgerow Mix) and Been Here Before that James gives us a more complicated, unique and ultimately satisfying insight. On the former, his rich, lazy voice plays off primitive percussion and a spoken word recipe for the aforementioned home-brew. On the latter, gentle acoustic textures are offset by frazzled, chopped-up lyrics detailing the troubles of too much thinking. Its as much Massive Attack as it is King Creosote or Ben Harper. But then, the countryside isnt all hazy meadows and miracles of nature sometimes theres the odd wolf waiting for you on the way to grandmas. And for all the innate beauty of his music, James Reid brings more than enough mystery to keeps things fascinating.
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by overplay | | | |
1:48 PM
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