Shaun Buswell’s band of film score musicians is currently touring the UK, mainly the north, in the form of a duo, with just Shaun and pianist/vocalist Becky Gibbons on the road to promote the band’s third single. It’s an intriguing prospect given the band’s ‘organic’ fiddle/piano based (but heavily remixed and remastered) folk sound.
Both sides of which are showcased here, with old-fashioned 12”-style versions of the two tracks included courtesy of productions by Ben One and Lighterthief (and yes, the list does indeed include a ltd. edition 12”- 300 of ‘em; without doubt this release’s ‘correct’ format.
Neither ‘Sleep’, a haunting arrangement led by piano and violin that’s over four minutes long, or ‘The Drugs Are Making You Love’, which is one of the highlights of the thoroughly superb album ‘Buy Me New Shoes’ make for obvious choices for release as a single. But both hit you in the heart, with ‘Sleep’s spectral lullaby and haunting message both warming and freezing the soul. Ben One’s remix adds a soothing sub-bass to the fragments of the original vocal, and it’s like watching someone picking up the pieces of their life.
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‘The Drugs’ is a beautiful record - direct, questioning and confrontational, but also delicate, tender and hurt. This turmoil skanks out and warps under Lighterthief’s electronic grind, and the message echoes like guilt, or paranoia, screaming inner thoughts at passers-by in crowded shopping centres. The marriage of gentle acoustic instruments with hi-tech synthesised noise is a complete success, with both elements combining to powerfully enhance the dissolution and emotional depth of the songs on offer.
The tour dates are worth a look right now! Shaun and Becky are weaving their way through some strange places on their way through the cultural north, and could well be playing tonight in the pub where your dad and his pals drink. It really would be a shame to miss them.
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