NOW YOU SEE ME

I purchased this album on the strength of my good friend Thomas' (Tszirmay) review, because, generally, we tend to enjoy the same music.

For what is so obviously an individual labour of love (Mold does it all on this work), so utterly home produced, the thing that strikes one upon hearing it is just how good the production and feel of the album is. The sound and vocals are utterly lush, as if, somehow, a David Hentschel, or similar luminary, had been sneaked into the home studio, twiddled the knobs, and left, with no credit to his name at all.

Mold has a plaintive, questing, and extremely pleasing voice. The emotion, see Will We Ever Return especially, an incredibly thoughtful song, is striking. His musicianship is of the highest order, and the backing vocals provided by Michelle Glover add very decent layers to the textures that the ears find so immensely pleasing.

There is a lot going on in this album, and the trick Mold pulls off is the very difficult one of making extremely accessible music in the context of progressive soundscapes. Not many pull it off, and it is done here with aplomb.

There is not one bum track, and my favourite amongst a really good bunch of tracks is Amelia (The Vagabond), a gorgeous paeon to the intrepid aviator who met her premature end somewhere over The Pacific Ocean. A thoughtful and lovely lyric, with some exceptional guitar work to take us soaring above the clouds whilst listening.

This is the kind of artist for whom this site was invented. A talented man, utterly honest in his endeavours, ploughing what must be, at times, a fairly lonely furrow bringing his music to a wider audience. The keyboard and guitar work, especially, deserve such an audience.

Well, this reviewer, for one, can wholly recommend a delicious slab of beautiful, pastoral, modern and commercial progressive folk rock.

Four stars. Quite excellent, so thank you Colin, Thomas, and, of course, Caerllysi Music from whom this was purchased - please support independent music outlets.