Nick Mulvey - First Mind, album review (Folk/Alternative)

Nick Mulvey's richly textured, elegant voice has the capability to become one of your favourite artists of 2014. The former Portico Quartet member's debut solo album is an enticing and intricately detailed record that calls to mind the warmth of classics, such as Peter Broderick's 'Home' and Jose Gonsalez's 'Veneer'. 

This is just one strand of the 28-year old's impressive accolades and talents. Now based in East London, the multi-instrumentalist has supported Laura Marling and London Grammar on tour, been named as one of the BBC Radio 1's artists of the year, and played an impressive set at this year's historic Glastonbury Festival. If that wasn't impressive enough, he was also a starting member of the Mercury Prize nominated jazz band Portico Quartet. From playing in small churches to selling out shows on his own tour, the singer has come a long way over the past three years.

Mulvey states that the name, 'First Mind', explains how he writes his music; based on instinct, rather than thorough, pre-meditated thought. That said, the album's influences are hard to pin-point on the first listen. At heart, the record is classic Americana-folk, but defining this beautiful piece of work into one sentence would be a complete crime. Traditional and experimental acoustics are mixed with delicate mild-electronic touches which form little diamonds in the rough. Although the beautifully contemplative songs are shrouded in an air of Paul Simon, Nick Drake and Ben Howard, Mulvey's degree from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London has also unexpectedly been put to use here. Finger-plucking guitar rhythms happily coincide with the Afro and calypso rhythms; a combination that would usually be cynically judged, yet Mulvey makes it his own.
Across these soundscapes, Mulvey tentatively sings about a world of love-lost, complicated relationships, the judgemental society we live in and the struggle of fitting in. The sublime 'Meet Me There' finds a groove in his world-weary, gentle tongue-twister "after all the people picking people picking people apart". The soft lamenting of 'Nitrous' surprisingly, yet outstandingly, transforms into a 90's style upbeat laughing gas-seller, where he steals lines from Olive's dance hit 'You're Not Alone'. However, it's 'Cucurucu' and 'Fever To The Form' that steal the limelight on the record. The tracks deal with the honest sentiment of the 'yearning to belong' and the difficulty of wanting more out of a failing relationship; stunning and building, they both cause you to get caught up in the embellishment, which fizzes and soars but leaves you feeling strangely helpless.
A brilliant record. The ambience, grooves and melodies here will prove to be irresistible, and this record will soon become the soundtrack for you this summer.

Check out 'Fever To The Form' below.

CHVRCHES - Recover EP review (Electro-pop/Indie, UK)

The name of the Glaswegian electro-pop band sounds forbidding. ‘CHVRCHES’ hints at yet another hipster pop band avoiding the mainstream with their culturally bankrupt spellings, and therefore bound to have limited success and a cult following. Supported by a lack of biography and few announcements prior to the release of the track ‘Lies’ last summer, the trio had an element of mystique or ‘cloak and dagger’ appeal to them. Despite limited media attention, CHVRCHES came fifth on the BBC’s New Year’s poll of tune makers, and supported fellow indie bands: Two Door Cinema Club, Passion Pit and Depeche Mode. CHVRCHES, having been compared to Grimes or a hyperactive Ellie Goulding, caused festivals on both sides of the Atlantic to offer the trio slots to play this summer.
Lauren Mayberry fronts the band with a sickly-sweet, angelic voice, which is sometimes piercing, yet still delicate and beautiful amongst synths and pop-hooks that burrow into our minds. Nothing short of magnificent, CHVRCHES establish forceful pop songs in hurricanes of limitless and godless energy; ‘Recover’ is the first and standout track on the EP with Mayberry’s vocals arching over pitter-patters, RnB bass elements and 80s influenced synthesisers. Multiple interrogatives display her confusion, desperation, or possibly plain naïve nature in a failing relationship, sounding almost precocious with Mayberry’s falsetto childlike voice. That said, when played loud, the vocals are lost amongst the pounding, colossal bass, and this is the band’s one downfall; the sea of professionally layered synthesisers and pop beats are sometimes too matched to Mayberry’s voice, causing the vocals to become lost or masked during the chorus.
‘ZVVL’ begins where ‘Recover’ leaves off. Iain Cook’s vocals are established as the main presence during this track; where Mayberry’s vocals are naturally shrill and cute, Cook’s voice is monotone and lethargic. Warped by computers, his voice wouldn’t sound too out of place on the latest Daft Punk record ‘Random Access Memories’, and electronic chimes  alongside pounding dance/bass beats carries on the 80’s inspired sound. The synthesisers don’t have as much of an impact as they do in ‘Recover’, but they stop the song becoming overpowering alongside the relentless bass beats. The track becomes slightly repetitive towards the end of the track, but stops at the appropriate point before it becomes boring and slightly frustrating. ‘Now Is Not The Time’ is slower paced than the previous songs, and Mayberry’s vocals sound slightly deflated and softer in utterances; refreshing after the previous full-on and dance inspired songs, yet charming and cute, still. Electronic hooks and pop beats are still present in the slower paced track, and it gives the impression of a mature approach to their same style.
Two remixes of Recover bring the EP round to a close. Not sounding too different from the original, yet still completely original, the remixes are energetic, atmospheric and airy. Lifting the original track to new levels, the remixes create dreamy aesthetics but do not come close to the dark dreamscapes that Crystal Castles or White Ring dominate. Electronic and bass-crammed ambiences overshadow the vocal presence during the latter part of the EP, yet still sounding true to CHVRCHES’ sound.
Acting as a teaser for their future debut album ‘The Bones Of What You Believe’, the Recover EP captures CHVRCHES’ delicately produced, electronic energy and dramatic soundscapes into three tracks and two remixes; CHVRCHES have put their destiny in their own hands to potentially become one of the biggest electronic acts during the next year.

Check out the single 'Recover' below.