Matthew The Oxx
Album: Elephant
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.matthewtheoxx.com

Matthew The Oxx hails from Lewes, an East Sussex town infamous for its Bonfire Night celebrations, which may be just as well as his new album, "Elephant" really does seem to be setting fireworks off as well as adding extra weight to the argument that that neck of the woods seems to be going through a massive creative renaissance at the moment.

"Elephant" was actually recorded in Australia and follows up on Matthew's previous cut, "The Polyanna Cramp", released back in 2012 and is an album that reinforces his status as a rising talent within the singer-songwriter genre.

As well as being a solo artist, Matthew The Oxx, has under various names performed with a number of groups, most notably, from my point of view The Mountain Firework Company, who we've featured in these pages over the years. In many ways he's part of the modern troubadour scene, taking both his travel and music over a wide range fitting in busking and gigs to help keep to momentum moving.

Matthew The Oxx has an idiosyncratic style, one that feels part of a rich journey, at times feeling like a sun tanned beach bum without a care in the world and then almost immediately drawn into a song that shows him to be a deep and thoughtful thinker keen to reflect on places and events and what they mean.

"Elephant" is an album that feels bright and breezy, it's an album that gives itself plenty of space allowing both vocal and instrumentation a space to drift, to allow the folky blues meanderings time to take shape and form some really great songs that sort of come into your consciousness from the left field and stay there. They say an elephant never for gets, well this "Elephant" once heard is difficult to forget and for that Matthew The Oxx deserves beach loads of credit.

Neil King