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m.craft - i can see it all tonight

 

a 6 track minilp that is rather special.

this quiet unassuming release slowly creeps up on the listener by the third listen and lodges itself quite deeply. the songs mainly comprise of plucked acoustic guitars, weird off kilter sounds and big warm bass lines with a soft rich voice that has hints of melancholy but never becoming overly strained/emotionally bare.

to see whether m.craft will fit into your world then i recommend you go straight to the revealingly titled 'sweets' (track 2). all the usual ingredients are present and correct but when the sparring female vocals hit (sarah cartwright) and the guitars start to rumble and feedback i am totally won over. highlight of 2004 so far ..

there are echoes of beta bands modern use of vocal layers/extra sonic tricks and old singer songwriter standards clash to a wonderful effect, especially on 'come to my senses' which loops and layers but never looses sight of a strong melody/chorus structure yet still sounding like some strange darkly foreboding soundtrack to an old 60's arthouse movie.

the pr makes reference to serge gainsbourg/nick drake, but, as i've not heard this stuff i will have to take their word on it, but m.craft definitely has that sound and vision of pop music from another era.

suave, sophisticated, darkly romantic pop music.

thankfully, the atmosphere is a lot lighter and more relaxed on 'on the 389', and the piano lifts the pleasure factor immensely. sing-a-long. i did. hugely enjoyable. feel spring just around the corner yet ? not while this plays, in this world the season is forever autumnal. as indicated by the cover and the colours. golden, brown, yellow painted artwork. matches the sounds perfectly.

one of the best things i have heard in 2004 so far, no doubt about that.

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