One of the joys of being in contact with other underground writers, is that every so often they will send something along that they feel might be of interest to me. One of the very top reviewers around, in my humble opinion, is Olav Bjørnsen from Norway. I sent him a copy of the wonderful ‘Sand’ by Miss Peach & The Travellin’ Bones, and when I explained to him what it was like, he immediately sent me a link to a video by Captain of the Lost Waves. I was blown away, and the album followed swiftly afterwards. On first hearing I was immediately entranced, as here is the much-missed Bond Street Bridge combined with Mumford & Sons, Fairport Convention, Edith Piaf, and possibly even a little Captain Beefheart.
I wasn’t surprised to see that he has performed at Steampunk festivals, as this music would fit perfectly within that scene. It is folk, alt-folk, acoustic yet poppy, melodic and easy to listen to yet also full of thought and passion. Once you get inside his world it is hard to get back to reality, as here is a place where acoustic instruments are the order of the day, and the piano accordion is once again a key musical component. As with much music these days, I listened this to the first time in the car, and here is my only complaint about the whole piece. I noticed that the final song on the album, “Mr. Many Men”, was more than twenty-eight minutes and I braced myself for a folk epic extravaganza like I had never heard before. So, imagine my disappointment when it faded out after about six minutes, to which I thought “Great, a hidden track, I thought they had gone out in the Eighties”. There was nearly nine minutes of silence before the album started up again, and then there was a series of songs that continued through to the end – but, they can’t be separately selected, and these are worth hearing so why not list them as such and get rid of the silence? It’s not clever, not wanted, and I don’t want to drive in silence for so long, so why bother? The reason it annoyed me so much is apart from this, the album is a masterpiece and a delight from start to end.
I can’t pick a favourite, so won’t bother, but will heartily recommend this to anyone who wants music that has been carefully crafted from the finest wood, polished and honed to perfection, as opposed to yet another piece of throwaway plastic that will only last a few minutes before the bright colours fade: yet another disposable commodity. This music may have found a strange way to get down from the UK to me at the other side of the world, but I am so very happy that it did as this is a ‘must have’.
