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Review: 'GILMORE & ROBERTS'
'Conflict Tourism'   

-  Label: 'GR! Records'
-  Genre: 'Folk' -  Release Date: '18th September 2015'

Our Rating:
Conflict Tourism is the fourth album from this British duo from South Yorkshire.

Five of its eleven tracks were written by Katriona Gilmore and the remaining six are by Jamie Roberts. They sing their own songs with Roberts accompanying them on guitar (mostly acoustic) and Gilmore playing fiddle and mandolin. The songs are rooted in the folk tradition yet also strongly reflect a pop sensibility. Mostly the two favour the first person perspective, so the collection comprises a series of individual narratives.

The album's title derives from the fact that conflict in all its forms is deemed to be a common thread. The nature of opposing forces is made explicit in Balance/Imbalance, a sober song which explores the dichotomy between black & white and yin & yang.

“We liked the idea of being tour guides through a minefield of different decisions and drama" says Gilmore but if there is a common enemy, he/she/it is never clearly defined.

One drawback is that any associated tensions or strong emotions that come with this territory are kept at arm's length. Warmonger, for example, is ostensibly an anti-war song but its bouncy melody negates any real sense of venom or outrage towards the aggressors.

The centrepiece of the record is Gilmore's Stumble On The Seam, a rousing soft rock tune about keeping faith in a dream based on the true story of a miner's 68 year search for "a lost Blue John seam in Castleton, Derbyshire".

Other topics include the changing faces of Mother Nature (Time Soldiers On), strong advice to a friend Cecilia ("think of this as friendly fire") and a song for another friend who died young Peter Pan.

There are no out and out love songs, although the heart-tugging closing tune (Ghost Of A Ring) evidently relates to the faded memory of an ex.

All in all, this is an eloquent, vibrant and warm-hearted album but, in adopting a bystander's perspective on the nature of conflict, the songs never have enough edge to take them very far away from an easy-listening no-man's land.



Gilmore & Roberts' website
  author: Martin Raybould

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GILMORE & ROBERTS - Conflict Tourism