The Tyde
Album: The Hidden Spoon
Label: Mrs Casey
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.tydefolk.com

It is sad but true that there are a lot of young British folk bands that only ever make one album. The main reason for this is that they often make their debut albums in their late teens early twenties before heading out into the wide world or start off at one of the music courses at college and then go their own way soon after. Naturally a lot of those artists stay in folk and form new bands, but I'm happy to report that Tyde are a band that buck that trend.

The combo have returned with album number two, "The Hidden Spoon", an album that sees the band continuing to move forwards. The songs and tunes are rooted in the tradition; even those penned from within the band, but are presented with a light almost jaunty touch that has just the right level of sweetness in it.

The instrumentation on the album is great, the trio creating clear arrangements that are full of life that allows you to pick out the individual instrumentation, primarily consisting of guitar, fiddle and squeeze box working in harmony on some absolutely cracking tunes, but it's when they add their vocal harmonies over these that the album seems to gain an extra gear.

Lead vocal duties predominantly fall to Heather Gessey who has a spring freshness in her voice, one full of recently opened blooms and with a deceptive lightness which, like the sundew, may seem sweet, but which also contains a dark trap, ready to catch the unwary. That said, one of my favourite songs on the album, "Katrina" a song about the New Orleans wrecking hurricane, has Seth Tinsley as the vocal lead, with the squeeze box of Andrew Waite taking on more of a Cajun flavour.

That's one of the things about The Tyde is that they are prepared to mix it. At its heart, "The Hidden Spoon" is a quintessentially English folk album of the third millennia, but it's also one that spreads its wings and takes in other influences on offer, sealed with approval.

Neil King