Fifteen Days
Album: At The Lake
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 4
Website: http://www.fifteendays.bandcamp.com

The 3rd EP release from Fifteen Days, aka London singer-songwriter Darren Plant, takes us into dark hazy-edged folk territory, with cursory nods in the direction of Kurt Vile and Fionn Regan, via Two Gallants, but emphasising the seedy yet vital underbelly of acousticity.

Opener "Requesting Leave" enshrouds the listener in a cocoon of other-worldly sparsely picked acoustic soundscape, Darren's plaintively ethereal vocal nestling comfortably alongside the heartbeat of the song as it rolls, repeats and insinuates it's addictive non-melody into your brain.

Title track "At The Lake", although based on a similar premise with that distinctive acoustic sonic resonance, is a little more upbeat. Just. The flying higher notes a neat counter-balance to the Plant vocal style.

If there is one criticism then it would be the apparent lack of light and shade as a whole over the 4 songs presented here. "The 19th Time" and "More Than I've Heard" are more of the same as their predecessors, and although the EP in it's entirety is a fascinating insight into the creative mind of an originally talented artist, I can't help wondering how a complete album of Darren Plant songs would hang together as a cohesive body of work.

For the time being however, we'll just enjoy the songs pulling at the edges of our sensibilities and taking us down into the twilight zone of an imagination clearly focused on those lost and forgotten recesses that not many artists dare to visit.

Ken Brown
www.squarerootspromotions.co.uk