Website Powered by FATEA

Releases

You've just completed your latest masterpiece and need to get the news out to a waiting world. Here's your opportunity. Click Here to mail us the details and a photo.

Please include contact, price and availability details.

You also get up to a hundred words to let everyone know what you and your release is about.

Please keep pictures below 30k

Album:Fatea Showcase Session: Songsmiths

Website: http://www.fatea-showcase-sessions.co.uk

Ok, hands up this is one of ours so we're not going to review it, we're gonna leave that to you. This download is available free from 1st May to July 31st. Simply follow the link to be taken to the release. Featuring fifteen singer/songwriters that we've been impressed with as we've reviewed the releases over the year. Each has their own style, all have impressed with their talent. Please download the album and see if you agree with us, then go to the individual artists websites to find out more. It really should be a no brainer, give it a try, you know you want to.

Album:Hymns For The Exiled

Label:Righteous Babe

Website: http://www.anaismitchell.com

I first discovered Anais Mitchell via SXSW07, so I was really pleased to see that she'd got herself with no less a label than Ani DiFranco's Righteous Babe. Mitchell includes a lot of social commentry in her songs. There's a sense of community in her writing. People pulling together in the face of adversity, be that adversity personal or driven by big and obtrusive government. She understands that at times silence can talk as much as sound and words which brings some interesting timings within the songs. She makes you feel part of her world like she invited you in.

Richard Kavanagh

Website: http://www.myspace.com/richardkavanagh

Formerly of The Pistachios, Richard Kavanagh strikes out with a solo album, "End Of Tape". It's an album with a raw, almost agressive edge. There is more than a touch of angry young man to this album and why not. With that agression comes a sense of purpose, a vitality and a sense of drive. There also seems to be cathartic side to the album, issues to be worked out through songs. It rages at the things it's difficult for an individual to change, "Guantananmo Bay" for example, seems to find more sympathy for the individual. An album of innner and outer strength.

Album:A Garland Of Song

Website: http://www.myspace.com/theowlservice

"A Garland Of Song" is an album of dark beauty, haunting and captivating. Vocals enchant and biguile, with and without supporting music. The world can be a shadowy place, but shadow defines, give character, makes edges stronger. Some things that are beautiful, can be cruel and some that are plain, warm and open. It's an album that connects us to our pagan past, but like the book the band is named after, not always in the most obvious ways. At times the presentation feels as old as the trees then as new as the buds. An album of contrasts and the unknown. Stimulating and fresh.

Website: http://www.myspace.com/fancybarrel

Aidan Smith, missed his era, due to not being born, but that's not going to stop him making up for it by trying to recreate it in his own image. "Allotments" sits where the psychedellic movement met folk. With elements of avent garde and jazz blended into the mix, plus a full brass section on one track, there are times when the album takes on a wonderful feel of chaos only to regroup later. Ukulele and organ add to the left field effects for an album, that plays joyfully with your mind with both sound and voice. A veritable caberet on a silver disc.

Website: http://www.waltertrout.com

"The Outsider" catches Walter Trout doing what he does best, hard rocking blues. It's something he does very well, but I get the feeling he's also very much in his comfort zone. It's well written, you can't fault the performance, Walter and the boys know their way around their instruments. It's not even a feeling that you've heard it before, it's just that you know he can do this until the cows come home. It's like he's not pushing himself and he's not challenging you. There's no risks, he's no longer riding a burning edge. He's fallen into a rhythm and needs to kick out again.

Label:Leftarm Records

Website: http://www.myspace.com/nigelclothier

Taken from the album, "Book Of Days", "Come North" makes a very strong single. Nigel Clothier makes great use of melody and understands the importance of a hook, particularly when you don't have a lot of time to snag your audience. There's more than a hint of sixties west coast folk that bubbles, merrily away under the vocal. It also serves to remind that music does not have to be dark and harrowing in order to have legitimancy and be 'real'. This is an uplifting single that'll get under your skin and have you humming along and more power to it.

Telling The Bees

Album:Untie The Wind

Label:Black Thrustle

Website: http://www.myspace.com/tellingthebees

Good honest folk rock with no pretentions, is probably the easiest way to describe, "Untie The Wind" from Oxford based Telling The Bees. Named after a fine English folklore tradition, it's no surprise to discover the music being inspired by the same ideas and thoughts. Whilst all the songs are penned by band leader Andy Letcher, they draw on something much older, as does the instrumentation and arrangements. It gives the album a timeless and almost hypnotic quality. It's an album of relationships, with each other, with the land and with the less tangible. Enjoyed it a lot.

Website: http://www.myspace.com/susieclarke

I'm not sure why, I'm not a musician, but there are some artists that can get a whole lot more resonance out of voice and guitars than others. Susie Clarke, is just such an artist. With just the addition of a touch of percussion and an ad-hoc modicum of fiddle, she manages to get a richness of sound that sits at the acceptable end of acoustic pop. Susie's voice is rich, lush, almost soulful and picks up a counterpoint to the almost, at times, cod reggae beat that moves the songs forward. There is however a danger of the songs drifting away from you as it takes you on a soothing too far.

Matt Taylor Band

Album:No Trouble At All

Website: http://www.matttaylorband.com

The Matt Taylor Band are a blues act whose star seems to be on the accendent. "No Trouble At All" sees the, trio advancing their guitar and wurlitzer sound. Whilst it has a retro feel to it, this is not blues tribute band stuff. It wear's it's influences on it's sleeve, but you can feel the sense of pride and belief that the band have in delivering an album that could only have come from this side of the pond. It's got a contemporary streak running through it. It's blends self penned songs with covers, turning "Everyday Is A Winding Road" into a British blues rock standard.

Album:Joys Of Spring

Website: http://www.myspace.com/johnfairhurst

Folk blues, with just a hint of the Mississippi Delta appear to be the order of the day for John Fairhurst. It's hard to believe he comes from the English North West, such is the strength of Fairhursts adoption of the jug band idea that almost anything can be and is a musical instrument. Consequently alongside the harmonicas, guitars and bass are washboards, wood blocks, chains and pan lids. It allows him to create an instrumental album, that still somehow manages to speak to you. You can feel and imagine characters sat in each of the tunes. Unusual and inspring.

The Indigo Road feat. Heidi Jo Hines

Single:Simple/Goodbye To You

Label:Alegria Records

Website: http://www.theindigoroad.co.uk

If this was football, Simple/Goodbye To You really would be a game of two halves. "Simple", is, as the title suggests, an uncomplicated adoration, that takes on an almost spiritual dimension, breathy vocals and great harmonies give the track a relaxed, but up lifting feel. It's more on the folk pop spectrum. "Goodbye To You" is far more agressive, a rock feel takes the driving force. It's frantic, like the team one goal down, four minutes left and an equaliser's needed top keep them in the game. The vocal finds a harder edge to bite into. Two good songs, but difficult to see the single.