Doug Panton
Album: Doug Panton EP
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 5
Website: http://www.dougpantonmusic.com

Doug Panton, starts off his self titled EP at quite a driving, almost demanding pace. Raw edged, with that feel of hurtling down the outside lane and not being entirely sure that you have complete control. The song is called "Young" and it does have that feel of invincibility of youth, even with some chanting that seems to egg the song on.

Doug Panton is a singer-songwriter from up Essex-Suffolk way, with a bit on a penchant for indie and pop influenced acoustic sound, that features rich harmonies and arrangements that seem to be built as much about the piano as the guitar.

Choral chants also seem to find their way into his music on a couple of the songs, adding greatly to the lush feel and texture of his music. Panton seems to take very easily to the big sound. You can easily imagine his sound filling some quite large rooms and feeling perfectly at home there.

One of the things I really like about his sound is that having given it that big room, wall of sound feel, he's not afraid to let a single instrument head off on its own. On "All Or Nothing", there's a piano riff that goes off and finds its own space within the song.

Panton is writing songs that have the capability to find him a decent sized slot on that pop part of the spectrum, the songs aren't challenging, they're not meant to be. These are well crafted pop songs, soundly delivered and I really enjoyed giving them the space to entertain me and that they did.

Neil King