REVIEWS

Cyclic Defrost review
Smile Down Upon Us
Their combined strength is in subtlety, when moomLooo's vocals and found sounds float atop Phelan and Sheppard's organic arrangements. 'A Vessel in the Fragrance', nestled inconspicuously towards the end of the album, is simply exquisite. Thudding drums, mesmerising parlour guitar and that vocal in perfect harmony make it the pinnacle of a gloriously spellbinding collaboration.
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Losing Today review
The Owl Service and Alison O'Donnell
The musical chemistry between the duo is breathless, observers of Collins earlier releases should not be surprised as to how at ease he is at peeling back the years to apply a timeless craft that sounds for all the world as though its just tripped out of 60's folk commune, lest we forget that with 'a garland of song' he in his own words hoped to touch on the magic and mystery of Fairport Convention's career defining 'liege and life'. An absolute must have release.
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Warpmart/Bleep review
Ass - My Get Up And Go...
Over ten tracks he channels the ghosts of John Fahey and Burt Jansch, captured with a rich, rounded tone that sometimes it seems only Northern Europeans seem to be able to do, every held note, harmonic and reverb, is recorded in all it's intimate detail.
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Vital Weekly review
Ass - My Get Up And Go...
Most instrumental, but his voice matches the music perfectly. Like said, hardly music that belongs the daily digest of a reviewer for these pages, but perhaps just because of that, this is a very fine record.What else can I do other than play the record again.
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Warpmart/Bleep review
Robin Saville - Peasgood Nonsuch
Beautifully presented long player from one half of Isan, Robin Saville. The music is as colourful and the cover photo - chromatic, shimmering and delicately 'pop'. The guitar arrangements are awash with warm nostalgia and have that slightly exotic phrasing that you might hear in Savath & Savalas. The 'pops' and 'whirrs' of static provide a rudimentary rhythm, however, the programming is very sophisticated and lends itself to the schooling of, say, Raster Noton as opposed to the clumsy 'new wave'.
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Cyclic Defrost review
Robin Saville - Peasgood Nonsuch
Peasgood Nonsuch is a gentle, caressing work from one half of Isan, Robin Saville. It contains one of the underlying characteristics of most good music - a fine tension between simplicity and complexity.... sounds exotic, but there’s not a hint of tackiness or fetishism for its own sake in the music. ‘Cloud Pathology’ ends the album with some reversed guitar bursts punctuating mesmeric synth and wordless vocal melodies.
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Fact Magazine review
Robin Saville - Peasgood Nonsuch
Robin’s solo offering harks back to the Isan of old, suffusing his Eno-esque soundscapes with an organic quality. It sounds human, nature-nurtured, lovingly produced.
The album breezes by in celestial, low-fidelity cuts’n’clicks style, with 'Colin The Lazy Cormorant Part 1' the high water mark; tenderly tentative pinch harmonic guitars, frankly cheeky fretless bass, and quietly oscillating synthesizer drones all conspire to make something truly unique.
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Vital Weekly review
Robin Saville - Peasgood Nonsuch
If you liked ISAN before, or anything where popmusic (for whatever that may be) meets up with modern classical music (say Harold Budd's 'Serpent In Quicksilver', this album is a perfect meeting place.
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Birmingham Post review
Serafina Steer - Public Spirited
The standout track, though, is Day Glo, which may be the best song Steer has crafted so far. Eerie and with a defiant sense of melancholy, her harp playing is at its most dextrous, and there’s an unwavering ethereality about her performance which is remarkable.
The stark beauty of the songs is matched only by the packaging. The disc itself is housed in an intricately folded cardboard sleeve designed and produced by local illustrator Ben Javens. An essential purchase - you really would regret missing out. 5 stars [Simon Harper]
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Brokenface review
The Accidental 7"
“Knock Knock (Tunng Mix)” is somewhat scracthy and beat-based while the flip is quite stunning with spacey synth pop sounds that manage to also be mysterious and abstract. File somewhere along a line starting with Pram and ending with Four Tet.
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Brokenface review
Ass/Blood Music split
The Ass/Blood Music split 7” on the same label is actually even better. Here we find two Swedish one-man bands sharing space and although I’ve heard them both before this nicely colored wax display what they’re capable of at their very best. My favorite side is Ass AKA Andreas Söderström whose two folk and conutry-induced tracks work like string mysteries that evoke a walk through seasons with streams of pictures, stories, moods, rhythms and colors that I’d love to here in the full-length format.
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Losingtoday review
Ass/Blood Music split
Scrumptious. Equally inspired and introspective is the piano and string led 'turn the boat, turn the boat' - a melancholic and noire-ish gem that takes its cue from those quieter moments before the climatic storm gatherings as found on those early and crucial godspeed releases - in short you need this - limited to just 500 copies.
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Vital review
Ass/Blood Music split
Great 7", of course and of course, once again.
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Piccadilly review
Maybach
Second single from The Yellow Moon Band, and it's another stonkin' classic. Taking in prog, rock, psyche and folk and melding a cool laidback spliffy Summery vibe to it, YMB have come up with three tracks to take us to the sun and the stars and back again. Wonderful stuff!!!
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Fact Magazine review
Maybach
Like Keith Moon jamming with an amped up, cranked up, fret board shredding, finger-tapping John Renbourn: the soundtrack to the greatest folksploitation film of your wet dreams. Hot damn!
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Rough Trade review
Maybach
Three tracks of Fleetwood Mac (more the Peter Green version this time) meets Trans Am, all killers!
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Losingtoday review
Maybach
For us though the sets best moment arrives in the shape of Focussed - possessing something irrefutably wide open, liberating and pastoral, this slender and meandering free spirited spot of bewitchment has enough vintage early 70s accents about its wares to suggest its been scented and sourced with classic era traces of Dandelion, Vertigo and Island while simultaneously casting nods in the general direction of Buffalo Springfield, CSN and to a lesser degree serving it up with math / prog undercurrents a la King Crimson. As ever you need this.
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Drowned In Sound review
First, The Winter...
'From The Ground Up' may have been omitted from many end-of-year Best Of lists, but make no mistake about it: Shady Bard made considerable inroads both on record and live throughout 2007. Their music conveys both depth and humanity without resorting to walls of noise or (occasionally) even the merest hint of a vocal. Ultimately, it's probably fair to say they are one of the most unique bands in the country at present.
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Boomkat review
The Bird and The Worm
Smith takes the QOTSA standard 'No One Knows' with a mightily impressive arrangement on his guitar, turning the whole thing into a nifty ragtime-style romp. Ace.
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Delusions Of Adequacy review
Games Of Position
Recalling both the more sedate strands of the Dirty Three's repertoire, the dusty meditations of Calexico's Travelall and the ghostlike glide of Miles Davis's infinitely influential In A Silent Way. A gorgeously-packaged piece.
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Black And White Mag review
split ep
There are exceptions to every rule, and this hipster-ready Textile Ranch / Charles Atlas split is a glorious exception.....This EP isn't full of your conventional lendings, albeit indie or not, but both artists here capture the essence of what left-field electro and post-rock is all about. I highly recommend this EP.
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Kidvinyl review
On The Night Plain
The vocals are stronger, the rhythms more compelling, and just when you thought you had George Washington Brown pinned down as a clever-but-cute folkster to file alongside Badly Drawn Boy and Iron and Wine, you’re confronted with the psychedelia-tinged pop sound, in truth not a million miles away from The New Pornographers. This is an incredibly assured, accessible-yet-engaging record, a dirty little secret for the lover of imaginative pop.
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Stylus Magazine review
On The Night Plain
The record itself feels open-armed and friendly. And, importantly, still fun. It starts in an almost timid fashion, with lone voice and acoustic guitar emerging from some understated drones and chimes, mumbling about hearts and brains and other Wizard of Oz-like matters. As this motley collection of notes make their way down the yellow brick road, they gain courage in voice and by the time their song is closing it feels as though a full chorus is linking arms and skipping in unison, delighting in the fact that "it still rains."
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Fact Magazine review
On The Night Plain
An exceptionally consistent record, a slow burning love affair with the heart - here's to this year's best lost gem already.
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Organart review
On The Night Plain
Is that a Melotron? Psychedelic in an uncluttered unobvious Beatles, Beach Boys, Village Green Preservation Society kind of way – but no, that’s wrong as well, well maybe if you came at Sargent Pepper in that English sounding post Guided By Voices, Elliott Smith way that no one else actually has until now. This is wonderful actually, mainly because the songs are so good, but then also because of the details in those songs – the sounds, the instrumentation, the mellow pace, the texture, the uncluttered warmth, the lyrics, the style, all the piss and vinegar and wholesome positive way that it just confidently knowingly flows and just feels so right – this really is a work of expansive unassuming captivating beauty, yes, a cherishable thing and yes, a very modern timeless honest record.
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Gaz-Eta review
Cheap Demo Bad Science
Her debut, ironically titled "Cheap Demo Bad Science" shows her to be a talent that is screaming to get out. Playing the harp and keyboards, she creates a world that is serene, soothing and quirky.
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Black And White Mag review
Cheap Demo Bad Science
Think freak-folk with the 'freak' part being very introverted. "Tiger" is playful yet timid acoustic-pop, never veering too far from Steer's limit of comfortability. Quiet music is rarely as profound as this, and Cheap Demo Bad Science never falls into the trap of cliches. I'd highly suggest this album to people who like FR Luzzi, RF & Lili De La Mora, and Animal Collective.
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Boomkat review
Cheap Demo Bad Science
No doubt this will achieve comparisons galore to Ms Newsom, but what I find so unique about Sefa's work is that it has its roots deeply embedded in classic British folk tradition, from the vocals to her very distinctive instrumental touch, even down to the lyrical content. With tracks as unashamedly attractive as 'Tiger' (which comes with a spiffy stop-frame video from Sam Steer) and the foot-stomping 'Dawn Chorus' this deserves to be an album that crosses into a world past the pages of the blogosphere and onto radio airwaves near you. I predict great things, so do yourself a favour and clasp you hands around something lovely - who knows, if we all think about it at the exact same moment we might even get a summer yet! Recommended...
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Rant Magazine review
Cheap Demo Bad Science
The music itself is often intriguing and pretty, yet like Eno’s work, it’s the voice that keeps it from being sickly-sweet.

It’s neither too restful nor too tranquil, but that’s not a criticism; the album is perfectly pitched to remain either as mere background melodies or a full up-front distraction – one of Eno’s tricks, and a difficult one to pull off, especially in modern folk, and it’s that which makes the album worthy of praise.
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Boomkat review
Cine
Absolutely lovely and ridiculously limited so be quick - I'd say for fans of Broadcast or Pram this would be indispensable.
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Q Magazine review
From The Ground Up
Shady Bard could easily be filed alongside the british whimsy of the Beta Band, Soft Hearted Scientists or even Tindersticks
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Boomkat review
From The Ground Up
Shady Bard must qualify as one of the least electronic sounding acts in Static Caravan's history, but based on the calibre of "From The Ground Up" they stand every chance of achieving the same sort of breakaway success that Tunng found with the label. Recommended.
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New Noise review
From The Ground Up
Shady Bard reveal themselves to be worthy challengers to British Sea Power’s throne of pastoral worry-rock. We’ve gone way off the middle of the road by this stage and are ploughing gleefully through the adjacent field. Something that at first seemed ordinary has revealed itself to be something quite unusual – and really very good.
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The Organ review
From The Ground Up
Sometimes quiet is the most powerful thing, a beautiful glowing album.
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Drowned In Sound review
From The Ground Up
Their closest allies in a musical sense are probably the likes of iLiKETRAiNS and Low, if only for the former's haunting melodies that veer between spoken-word symphonies and mesmerising soundscapes, and the latter for the evocative harmonies that echo those that spill out of the mouths of Shady Bard's Lawrence Becko and Jasmin Hollingum every so often.
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Alternative Ulster review
From The Ground Up
'From The Ground Up' is Shady Bard's debut and it's nothing short of spectacular.
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Wireless Bolinger review
From The Ground Up
They're pastoral folk-rock, like Grandaddy or Midlake, with the fullness of Sigur Ros, minus the Icelanders' epic bent. The title track, 'From The Ground Up', is the most obvious of the Sigur Ros comparisons. An instrumental, the layered strings and subtle guitar effects lead to a drum-driven crescendo that would not have seemed out of place on Takk. You can't escape the feeling that they would be far more at home playing a gig on a cold, wet, winter morning in a country field than in a seedy little pub or bar....
From the Ground Up is as assured a debut as I've heard, and consistent enough in its themes, instrumentation and song-craft for it to be an 'album' in all the word's connotations.
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Losingtoday review
From The Ground Up
'From the ground up’ is simply beautiful, there’s no other word for it - bleak, bruised, beguiling and burning with inward regret. It has over the course of the few days in the company of our hi-fi literally reduced this particular listener to moments of tears like no other full length before it making it something of a feat, for myself, to get through from start to finish in one sitting.
In short ‘From the ground up’ is in a class of it’s own.
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The Wire Review
Ylid / Matthew Rozeik
"It would be a mistake to view this four track EP from friends Rozeik and Ylid as a split release, even though they both contribute two songs apiece. Close friends and secret sharers of a common muse, this is not the first time that they've worked together in such a fashion, blending guitars, strings and the subtlest of rhythmic beds into finely crafted songs. Of the two, Rozeik, with a background in composing soundtracks for short films, has the melodic edge, favouring smoother lines and more arresting arrangements. In return, Ylid goes a little deeper into the click and the cut, but it's what draws the two together that gives this project its distinctive edge."
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Birmingham Post Review
Treeology EP
Birmingham-based quintet Shady Bard have left critics salivating with this mellifluous EP, their debut recording. Perfectly showcasing their shimmering folk-pop, these six tracks arrive as if filtered through the minds of Spiritualized’s Jason Pierce and Sparklehorse mainman Mark Linkous. Bobby and These Quiet Times are simple yet oddly ambitious, and seem to be custom-built for festival crowds bathing in the afternoon sun. From the Ground Up, meanwhile, is resonant of the elegant chamber-rock swells of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. A fantastic release, this marks out Shady Bard as a band to watch closely this year. Catch them while you can.
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DJ Magazine Review
Icicles & Snowflakes/Almond Eyes
If there were awards for quiet and unassuming services to indie music, then Static Caravan would surely be up for the prize. With each and every year their catalogue expands slowly but surely across the acoustic/electronic spectrum with unusual, interesting, yet all to often overlooked music. Doing his bit for the cause then, Stefan Panczak delivers another perfectly poised and perfectly tempered piece of sparkling, chiming and seductive electronica that's as subtle and beautiful as it is impossible to resist.
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Electronic Desert Review
A Rainy Mile
"A Rainy Mile" is Cheju’s debut release for the honourable Static Caravan label. The beautifully packaged four track 3” CD single starts off with “Traces”, Cheju’s signature is clearly audible and it would be the beats that would give him away, however isn’t there a very familiar yet foreign element in this track as well, a sample of another great electronic musician. “Adrift” features devastating vocals and imposing guitars fused with a healthy beat to keep things moving along quite unlike Cheju and at the same time not. “Hikari” brings the big drum and Cheju sounds to go, it’s just a great seminal track. “Prolonged Reflection” is in a sense a retake on one of his own tracks and probably my favourite of the four on this EP. The build-up is superb, beats, melody and bassline to die for and kind of reminiscent of Bauri’s work actually, but still being a Cheju affair. “A Rainy Mile” - a lovely 3-inch release from Static Caravan counting in at 112! It’s only a 200 series’ run, so I suggest you get your self a copy before it’s too late...
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Etherreal Review
A Rainy Mile
Déjà auteur de nombreux EP en 2005 (sur Boltfish, qu'il co-dirige, mais aussi sur Rednetic, Kahvi Collective ou Laced Mikl Technologies), CHEjU débute 2006 avec un nouveau maxi, paraissant cette fois-ci sur Static Caravan. CD-R 3", boîtier en plastique de couleur, electronica mélodique : tout laisse à penser qu'il s'agit là d'un des volumes de la série Residents Association de Cactus Island Recordings. Rythmiques précises et légèrement appuyées, mélodies classiques mais agréables, on est bien ici dans l'electronica traditionnelle, teintée de certaines sonorités plus métalliques ou plus grésillantes. Parfois plus agressives (Hikari), les pulsations sont néanmoins tempérées par la dimension chromatique de la musique de l'Anglais et notamment ses notes s'apparentant à un clavecin digitalisé. Opérant dans Adrift dans des climats plus évanescents, Wil Bolton propose d'extatiques nappes de synthé et une rythmique plus laid-back bientôt rejointes par une guitare aérienne et des cliquetis pour un résultat tout à fait probant. Dans une même atmosphère apaisée, Prolonged Reflection dispose de petites notes graciles, presque caressantes, idéale clôture d'un maxi particulièrement convaincant.
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Channel 4 Teletext Review
Treeology EP
'One of our Faces Of 2006, ambition and beauty resonate from every note of an EP that's both beautifully tender while rocking like Lost's polar bears. Hard not to say how gorgeous this is without being pretentious. How about "lovely"?' - Planet Sound, Channel 4 Teletext (p.355)
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Losingtoday Review
Treeology EP
Sublime in the way it literally destroys you this EP is quietly magnificent, sensitive, mellow, melodically perfect and one for snuggling under the blankets to. Autumnal of that there‘s no doubt, hurting and lost in a maddening world of quick firing three minute fumbles in the sack of pop - Shady Bard’s compositions are measured, elegant cast and lasting. Once the frosty opening of the introductory instrumental thread of ’The Origin of Trees’ with it’s yawning strings and lullaby-esque piano keys passes into the ether from out of the snowbound daybreak comes the enchanting softly treading ’Treeology’. Think of the more mercurial and less fractured moments from Thom Yorke’s psyche, add to it a vocal that sounds not unlike a younger and tearfully stained King Creosote and the gentle but subtle haunting splash of conscience pulling cascading chords braided by an complement of softy impatient strings that together hover ominously with the implied threat that they’ll soon unhook themselves from their serene mooring. Absolutely amazing stuff. The equally arresting ‘These Quiet Times’ next which you feel would be enhanced immensely by a backdrop of snow drifts outside, horse chestnuts roasting on a roaring open fire and an array of some suitably ’Giles’ inspired choir singers outside distantly peddling their Xmas fair into the cold night air.
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Boomkat Review
The Pioneers
The magnificent Tunng is back..and this time with a fabulous dual-format EP for Static Caravan featuring a cover version of Block Party's 'The Pioneers' stripped of the histrionic herky-jerky guitars and XFM vocals, to be replaced by a very satisfying trickle of electronic folk. The product of Tuung (Mike Lindsay and Sam Genders), 'The Pioneers' exists somewhere between the Beta Band, The Notwist and Nick Drake; a sound they honed to nigh-perfection on their LP 'Mother's Daughter'. Backed up by 'Tale From Black' (a throbbing cohabitation of Ye Olde folk, dusty samples and rigid beats), 'Pool Beneath The Pond' (oak-lined bass, sonorous vocals and skin-itching tronica) and the video for 'Fair Doreen' (CD only, of course), 'The Pioneers' is as satisfying a chunk of rustictronica you're likely to hear. Highly Recommended!...
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Losingtoday Review
Dreams of Tall Buildings vs. Scott Smallwood
’Songs of Opposites’. Without doubt the best looking thing we’ve received in yonks this - limited or should I say strictly limited to just 100 copies (and word is on presales alone this is fast dwindling) cute thing comes packaged like one of those old floppy disc things from the 80’s - housed in a neat Memorex sleeve to boot. At first we thought uh-ho given that previous dotb releases have either come pressed between planks of wood or as mummified soap slabs, maybe, just maybe this would be another release to merely drool over for looks alone, but hey we are veterans of the Krypton Factor and having pondered after a sleepless night found our way into said package to unearth a CD with 8 tracks to boot - whoopee! Be warned though it’s a lights on to be played in the day time type release, this isn’t your playful dotb here this is their impish alter ego hell bent on frazzling your head and into the process scaring you shitless. Resorting to sound manipulations, distortions and drone-scapes ’Songs of Opposites’ creates a deceptive barren like collage of moods as eerie as we’ve heard since Tears of Abraham’s ’Sacrificing the Text’ earlier last year and perhaps further still to those all important early outings of Pimmon (especially on ‘Red becomes black‘). It’s not all doom and gloom though - okay then we are talking degrees of doom and gloom here - after the disturbing opening shot of ‘96 small squares’ which to these ears possesses shades of Barry Gray’s closing credits to ‘UFO’ the doomy bleakness of ‘Feed’ soon dissipates as the organic augmentation begins to take shape a la Set Fire to Flames. On the other hand ‘Black Ice Letters’ could easily be the long lost art of Martian communication chattering incessantly inside your head while the quite frankly ominous and dare we say bed wetting ‘Patience knows these hands’ is distracting only for the fact that you’ll either keep checking behind the sofa expecting to be met by something with large teeth and a taste for human flesh or have the overriding need to impishly scream ‘It’s behind you’. Perhaps the most together cut to be found on this collection is ‘Propaganda Film’ which itself belies an oddly Far East resonance while being equipped with all manner of bells, chattering clicks and spooky creaks and groans - not so much a song as such but rather more a passing through a point of reverence. Personally though for me the ornate after dark down tempo vibe of ‘Victory found in books’ serves as the high water mark here as for once the abstract / concrete tendencies and the visibly alien terrains are left aside in their place warmer textures and a lunar like calm not unlike the type Warp used to frequently engage in pervades throughout. Eclectic and erratic they may be but Dreams of Tall Buildings can and never will be accused of being dull. Essential and indeed worrying your life mightn’t be made any more enlightened for the experience of having it but your record collection will certainly be that much cooler. Consider yourselves told.
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Losingtoday Review
Besnard Lakes ‘Would anybody come to visit me’. More Static delights with which to spend your unused Xmas record vouchers on is this diamond release from Besnard Lakes. Lovingly pressed on 10 inches of sumptuous vinyl each of these 500 pressings comes equipped with a screen print insert and if that wasn’t good reason for a spot of cheering and bunting hanging then the two tunes neatly packed between the grooves may well rekindle your belief that pop music can touch, tease, tussle and do strangely wonderful things to your head. With a follow up full length to ‘Volume 1’ in the can and ready awaiting release this twin set provides ample proof as to why these kids are already the subject of hushed mutterings among those in the know. The beauty of Besnard Lakes sound is that it doesn’t hit you immediately instead preferring to leave enough trace elements of something unknown to snag your senses and put that doubting thought in your head that it might just be a good idea to let the stylus do is thing once more. Three plays in and you are hooked ‘Would anybody come to visit me’ softly unfurls not so much in a rush of colour but more so exacting a slow dripping hue, quietly stirring within an array of familiar sounds and yet not familiar sounds, partly kaleidoscopic, partly epic if only for the way it slyly seduces with it’s soft centred folds. Don’t be fooled by its opening ambit the vibrant array of cloud piercing feedback that whine and shimmer as they soon acquit themselves of their task in creating an atmospheric entrée and having done so exit stage left leaving in their wake the most off centred slice of laid back coolness you’ll probably find hard to better all year a kind of meeting of minds between early Butterflies of Love (think ‘Rob a Bank’ here) and Galaxie 500 found skulking under a stairs swapping notes on the merits of both Morricone’s effective skeletal spaghetti western scores and John Barry’s mercurial aural sculptures. Likewise BL supply a bagful of crucially gentle strumming, supplant copious amounts of heart sapping finger licking drop dead gorgeous guitar string plucking, throw in some frankly unreal harmonies and mash it all together into something that’ll break hearts of stone at the drop of a hat. Preferring not to let the side down over on the flip there’s the wonderfully hypnotic lull of the sample heavy ‘Life rarely begins with Tungsten film #2’ which comes across deceptively docile to slyly crush you beneath the weight of its hidden beauty - play loud to get the most from it’s spellbinding seduction taking care to avoid the ’Cars’ like intro as it builds layer by layer along the way making visible post rock nods so much so that you might throughout the duration be forgiven for thinking you’ve stumbled across a secret union between early Arab Strap, San Lorenzo and the much loved Workhouse (which reminds us - are Bearos and Awkward Silence records still around?). Essential stuff.
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Birmingham Post - December 2005
Strange Sounds Orchestra
The brainchild of musician and author Mark Brend, this single from Strange Sounds Orchestra is simultaneously kitsch and highly sophisticated. Exotic, futuristic lounge music, it's an uncanny approximation of how Stereolab would sound if Joe Meek was among their ranks. It could easily have made the perfect soundtrack to a cult 1970s TV show. There's an accompanying book written by Brend (published by backbeat books £16.95) exploring some of the most weird and wonderful crannies in pop history, essaying such gloriously oddball instruments as the theramin and the stylophone. Lovingly put together, it makes for a riveting package.

Future Music Review - December 2005
Strange Sounds Orchestra
"...Strange Sounds is entertaining and informative throughout, and comes with a CD full of samples of the various instruments detailed in the book. The author has also recorded a single as The Strange Sounds Orchestra - four songs of gorgeous retro-futurist pop released in conjunction with the book and the Static Caravan label." 9 out of 10
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Pennyblack Review
Build your own snowglobe
'A myriad of musicians and 'outfits' record a digital mish mash of acoustic, vocal and computer performances these days. The Library Trust delivers the eloquent tranquility you expect yet a teenage angst wee went into this EP. Since this is the debut of Simon from last year's Under 19, it is forgiven. His pure voice makes 'Build Your Own Snowglobe' the friendly listen, like an umbrella and moreover he has a talent for melody. 'Beyond Blue' closes off this intimate session with the tension that turns you curious for more '
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Piccadilly Records
Build your own snowglobe 'Static Caravan once again edge away from their usual electronic fare with this release from Rob Edwards aka The Library Trust. This four track EP is a collection of beautiful, frail songs. The delicate acoustics and finely crafted songs are inevitably gonna draw comparisons to Badly Drawn Boy's first EPs, but where as Badly's songs had a playful charm, the tracks on this EP have a much darker bittersweet edge to them, more akin to the songwriting style of The Montgolfier Brothers perhaps. Whatever comparisons you care to make, this is truly lovely stuff. A strictly limited vinyl EP record in a seven-inch picture sleeve in an edition of 400 copies. Grab one now before everyone cottons on to The Library Trust's charm!'
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City Life Review
Build your own snowglobe 'Little is known about the Library Trust other than the fact that he grew up in deepest rural Lancashire and now lives in Manchester. The son of two librarians, he was encouraged to read from an early age and his lyrics suggest a lifetime immersed in stories and fairy tales. Songs like 'Eveline' and 'A Shove in the Mouth' capture the raw frustration and loneliness of small town life, while Harbour suggests there's a river of secrets and lies flowing beneath the lake District. On a more intimate note, 'Beyond Blue' exposes the pain and pleasure of heartache and unrequited love. Endearingly executed with just acoustic guitar and strings for instrumentation, this is a lovely debut that's well worth seeking out.'
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Silentage review
Virtute Et Industria
There are few British labels left that you can take a chance with your pound on but Static Caravan is that rare, rare thing. Each and every release is never anything less than fascinating. Quite how this tiny West Midlands label has survived these past few years is anyone’s guess – particularly when it’s production runs are often limited to a mere 500 and until recently, it’s most favoured format was the record store-unfriendly 7” vinyl. Even so, Static Caravan is arguably the closest thing we’ve got to a spiritual heir to Wurlitzer Jukebox – the remarkable 90’s independent that discovered and gently kick-started the careers of wonderful units like ISAN, Broadcast and Plone.

Geoff Dolman, the ‘van’s A&R filter has no less a talent for panning gold in a river of copyist shit. Bronnt Industries Kapital are, therefore, the most recent in a long line of intriguing discoveries. What’s most interesting here for me is the juxtaposition of some incredibly grave, often intense keyboard and loop work with off kilter, downright fearsome, machinated rhythms. And though that description might bring to mind, perhaps Aphex Twin, this is considerably less polished; gritty; coughed up. Indeed, though BIK’s production smacks of weed-aided, late night home recording, there’s a wealth of tone and texture here – mainly greys and blacks/browns in tool steel and bromide.
www.silentagerecords.co.uk/bronnt
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Birmingham Post Review
Reviewed by Simon Harper - 09 May 2005
Virtute Et Industria
'Like hearing the words "After the break, Lorraine Kelly ...", the debut album from Bristolian duo Bronnt Industries Kapital inspires a deep sense of foreboding. The work of Guy Bartell and Nick Talbot, Virtute Et Industria is a defiantly unsettling record, its dark, glitchy electronica recalling Cabaret Voltaire and Aphex Twin.
Endless Pressure revolves around a sparse melody; it’s simultaneously chiming, charming and chilling.
Yet it also appears remarkably human, rather than robotic – the grim, horrific side of humanity buried within the ominous atmospheres. Virtute Et Industria will command your attention, although it’s probably best to listen with the lights on.'
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Independent Review
Reviewed by Andy Gill - 07 January 2005
This is Tunng
'As might be expected of a duo who perform "Maypole Song" from The Wicker Man in their live shows, there's a distinctly bucolic tone to Tunng's debut album - albeit one tempered with a sharp edge of modernity, courtesy of the beats and samples with which producer Mike Lindsay embellishes the folk-song stylings of singer Sam Genders. The result is a quirky, distinctive blend of ancient and modern, its combination of acoustic guitars, folksy ruminations and glitch-tronica rhythms resembling a digital-age Pentangle. It's one of the more successful exercises in folktronica since Momus first coined the phrase back in 2001, thanks largely to Genders' ability to draw on elemental imagery both metaphysical (lines such as "Thou art not Satan's girl" and "I saw the sun fall on everyone") and scientific ("Like Watson and Crick, you seem to look into my soul"), and Lindsay's knack for disrupting any cosy nostalgic tendencies with sudden interjections of things such as door-intercom buzzers and canned applause. Best of all is "Tale from Black", in which lines such as "She knows when they jail her they'll grind down the key" capture something of the dark, cataclysmic extremity of traditional folk songs.'
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Guardian Review
Reviewed by Dorian Lynskey - Friday January 7, 2005
This is Tunng
'Following in the footsteps of Adem and Four Tet are singer Sam Genders and producer Mike Lindsay, whose CV includes a spell writing soft-porn soundtracks for Richard Desmond's Fantasy Channel - not that there's any obvious connection, unless one of the films he worked on was called Confessions of a Wicker Man.
The 10 songs here all sound as if they were composed on some remote Scottish island, then electronically interfered with en route. People Folk has the clattering, mantric drone of early Beta Band, while Surprise Me does exactly what its title promises, with Genders extending a homely invitation "to light the fires when the sun goes down" over unlikely ray-gun spurts and rattling dancehall jolts.'
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Tunng
Tale from Black
BoomKat Review
'Absolutely fabulous new 7" on the ever-adorable, reliable and on-the-mark Static Caravan imprint. "Tale From The Black", incredibly, is the debut release from Mike Lindsay, aka Tunng, striding a gloriously accomplished line through folk and all the marvellous permutations it seems to have spawned over the last few years. We hope Static hold on to this guy, you just know listening to this remarkable debut that there'll be a clamour of interest in an artist destined for big things. Killer.'
Review www.boomkat.com
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Tunng
Tale from Black
Norman Records Review
'One of the biggest surprises this week is the new Static Caravan 7" by Tunng. Early Beta Band & Badly Drawn Boy, The Wicker Man soundtrack & "Elizabeth My Dear" by The Stone Roses spring immediately to mind. Beautiful folk guitar, dreamy Ian Brown esque lullaby vocals & a drum machine. Would love to know what that brief sample is lifted from, Geoff old boy! Yep. My single of the week, just wicked!'
Review www.normanrecords.com
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CULTUREINDUSTRY
dj ascetic loves himself badly
Drowned in Sound Review
'As debut singles go, the first offering from [CULTUREINDUSTRY] on Static Caravan does notably well at giving its listeners the willies whilst barely batting an eyelid, so better fear for your (and their) sanity when then look like they’re struggling. Having recruited former musicians from both The Others and Hope Of The States, hauled themselves around at gigs and club nights (hi there, Don’t Piss On The Fish) and got themselves into the mighty Sick Room Studios, the group are now honed enough to ably imprint their fear and loathing onto wax.
Don't have nightmares.'
Review www.drownedinsound.com
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D_rradio
U_nderscore
Blow Up Magazine Writer - Davide Gualandi
'It is difficult to foresee the future for d_rradio. Making hypothesis and suppositions on their role as innovators of the overpopulated english scene. Despite the fact that their debut "long player" does not turn upside-down other musicians approach, its content is actually impossible to underestimate. First of all because on u_nderscore there's everything that we have enjoyed in last years, from post-rock to IDM. D_Rradio use sounds like Boards of Canada with an indie attitude, like Hood or Dntel, but they have their own great songwriting, which is a primary detail. U_nderscore is an assembly of touching tracks, in an ocean of sadness (listen to the piano in No more reaction) but with sparks of analogic light & rhythms here and there. Like a modern issue of the Mogwai Young team, for here and now.'
Review Blow up magazine
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D_rradio
U_nderscore
Comes with a smile
Writer - Andy Slocombe
'Keeping the ball rolling ahead after suitably well-received 7" releases on Static Caravan and Awkward Silence - seemingly the only two labels keeping that format alive, and all power to them for it - this 38-minute mini-album from the promising North-East quartet is very much a continuation of the template laid down by their vinyl output, and lives up to expectations comfortably. Maintaining an eerie, slow-motion pace in the course of the 7 instrumental tracks here, Death Row Radio (yep) have struck upon and fine-tuned a graceful, timeless sound without the peaks and troughs that some of their closest peers seem duty-bound to include. Minimal, warm and widescreen in composition, this is neither electronica nor post-rock, yet the end product is almost solely an amalgam of the two - which suggests they've found a perfect balance whether by accident or design that leaves them impossible to classify and without direct comparison, somehow; nothing new in terms of the component parts, but that's where the craft lies.'
Review Comes with a smile
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