Espers & Special Guests
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Sun 19 November 2006 // 18:00
with Edith Frost + Starless and Black Bible + Nancy Elizabeth Cunliffe (Sun 19th / 6pm / £7 advance)
This is a fine, fine night - a quadruple bill of rock, country, folk and psych. Move in early for this one.
The atmosphere produced by Espers (Drag City) is intensely great, out of time and supernatural. The band have a sense of space and pace that belies an uncanny gift. The vocals of Meg Baird are beautifully unadorned which adds to their power and the slow rocking instrumentation has a slow buzz that builds exceptionally haunting moods. Last time they came with Devendra Banhart (who plays with some of the band) another member produces Marissa Nadler, others slow cook music via this exceptional band, who are three albums into it. Get into it and sit beneath 'The Weed Tree'.
Label mate Edith Frost has been called a chanteuse and a country torch singer - but her style of writing, singing and playing is all that and more. Since 1996 she's honed her songcraft on a series of acclaimed releases that show the Edith's "country" has many roots - country, folk, blues and soul, tin-pan alley and jazz.
Starless and Black Bible (Locust) are a Manchester band whose chamber torch song has elements of radiophonic workshop electronics and a gusty power. Influences such as John & Beverley Martyn, Cocteau Twins and Billy Childish run through their work. Arrangements vary from chiming finger picked guitar to full-on band with electronics, the focus is always on the charcoal vocals of their French chanteuse and the song.
Nancy Elizabeth Cunliffe is worth arriving early for. Playing anything from guitar to Celtic harp to Thai kim to recorder she has been wooing audiences with her honest voice and emotional songs. Think magical British folk (Anne Briggs or Vashti Bunyan) with the colourful, beautifully measured emotional style of Cat Power and Natalie Merchant.
This is a fine, fine night - a quadruple bill of rock, country, folk and psych. Move in early for this one.
The atmosphere produced by Espers (Drag City) is intensely great, out of time and supernatural. The band have a sense of space and pace that belies an uncanny gift. The vocals of Meg Baird are beautifully unadorned which adds to their power and the slow rocking instrumentation has a slow buzz that builds exceptionally haunting moods. Last time they came with Devendra Banhart (who plays with some of the band) another member produces Marissa Nadler, others slow cook music via this exceptional band, who are three albums into it. Get into it and sit beneath 'The Weed Tree'.
Label mate Edith Frost has been called a chanteuse and a country torch singer - but her style of writing, singing and playing is all that and more. Since 1996 she's honed her songcraft on a series of acclaimed releases that show the Edith's "country" has many roots - country, folk, blues and soul, tin-pan alley and jazz.
Starless and Black Bible (Locust) are a Manchester band whose chamber torch song has elements of radiophonic workshop electronics and a gusty power. Influences such as John & Beverley Martyn, Cocteau Twins and Billy Childish run through their work. Arrangements vary from chiming finger picked guitar to full-on band with electronics, the focus is always on the charcoal vocals of their French chanteuse and the song.
Nancy Elizabeth Cunliffe is worth arriving early for. Playing anything from guitar to Celtic harp to Thai kim to recorder she has been wooing audiences with her honest voice and emotional songs. Think magical British folk (Anne Briggs or Vashti Bunyan) with the colourful, beautifully measured emotional style of Cat Power and Natalie Merchant.