Excerpt: “Gentle gramophone crackling between echoing drumbeats and atmospheric synth make ‘Wooden Music’ stand as a soundscape all on its own. In ‘Leatherwing Bat’ and ‘Hicks’ Farewell’, however, the sparse instrumentation serves as a vessel for Allen’s voice, which soars like a Celtic hymn. More conventionally structured, the title track is a gentle folk-pop offering that sees a keyboard part exploring the upper registers while Allen self-harmonises and a simple drum machine line keeps time. Conversely, ‘Cloy’ sees the percussion stripped away and a mournful note bleeding into the vocals. The album’s elegance lies in the minimalist arrangement, which allows Allen’s porcelain-fragile voice to draw the focus and give each little hiss, string-strike and echo purpose and space to resonate.”
Hidden Shoal MixTape
