James Mathe is certainly one to watch in the near future. He's been around a few years now under the moniker 'Barabrossa' but recently he's broken free from that to record under his own name. I first came across him on the limited edition Bedrume Cassettes ep that he released at the end of last year. They were rough and ready demos in the main and act as a marker for where he intends to pitch his band musically. He's been busy recently touring with and supporting Johnny Flynn and working with another name to watch, Saint Saviour.
I'm a bit embarrassed to say that I haven't gone back to listen to Barbarossa but the Bedrume ep in its handmade cover has become something of a permanent fixture on the top of my cd player. It's a down-tempo sound without being maudlin and suits Mathe's voice very well. He's certainly an accomplished enough songwriter to be bold enough to call one of the tunes a poem. There's an unexpected bonus too in a rather lovely cover of Terence Trent D'arby's 'Wishing Well'. Even though it's primarily a keyboard affair it has a home-made lo-fi feel to it with what sounds like a Casiotone. Bearing that in mind the compositions are surprisingly detailed and it's easy to forget that these are demos with (presumably) little post-production.
No comments:
Post a Comment