The August List
Album: O Hinterland
Label: Ubiquity Project
Tracks: 11
Website: https://www.facebook.com/theaugustlistmusic

I've been a big fan of Dorset originated, Oxford based duo, The August List, from the moment I heard their "High Town Crow" EP. I immediately offered them a slot on the Showcase Sessions, which I'm pleased to say they took up and I've been following their releases ever since. Until now this has mainly been eps and singles, but I was really pleased to see, "O Hinterland", the duo's debut album emerging from an envelope recently.

The album has already picked up an album of the week accolade on one internet radio station and already seems to be picking up airtime elsewhere and it's easy to see why. There is a sense of the schizophrenic around the album, sometimes a song will start off feeling quite outgoing and then suddenly turn in on its self with other songs taking a polar opposite route.

Similarly, Martin and Kerraleigh Child, the husband and wife partnership that are The August List seem equally at home playing with pace and texture along an alt.country, Anglicana road with a sound that can drive or mournfully reflect. It also makes them a difficult band to pigeonhole, which is never a bad thing, but I couldn't help but draw a comparison to The Bastard Fairies who similarly explored loops and reverb in gothic folk.

There is something delightfully idiosyncratic, about both band and album, to mix a metaphor, they push the envelope, whilst still remembering to leave space for the narrative, a narrative that often lurks in the shadows and the twilight, but without making you feel like they have blundered in an art noir movie.

"O Hinterland" is a genuinely fresh and different album. It not only lives up to the promise of the singles, it makes its own promise that if you keep coming back there will be plenty to explore and keep you entertained, some of it back wood Louisiana, some of it a west that's a whole lot closer, not a bad trick if you can pull it off and The August List most definitely do.

Neil King