NEW RELEASE - CLANG SAYNE - WINTERLANDS

I played the bass on this one but I'm going to write about it as if I hadn't, because that's a lot easier. Plus, it's not like I wrote any of it. Which isn't a disclaimer, by the way. See? It's not easy writing about stuff you've played on. Particularly when the rest of the band might read it.

So (adopts neutral tone)... This album has already created a wee bit of a stir, picking up some very favourable reviews and airplay since its initial CD release in 2010.

Though the name Clang Sayne applies to any number of collaborative projects involving singer and guitarist Laura Hyland, Winterlands was recorded by a quartet that had worked pretty intensively together.

Clang Sayne's music has often been termed 'avant folk', but it's not really on the money as a description. Someone once described it as 'AMM meets Joni Mitchell', which Laura hated, but at least iit's more specific.

Her songs are deceptively complex, their melodies picked out by her nimbly intricate acoustic guitar and lithe, expressive singing. Meanwhile bass, drums and guitar create a restless, swooping backdrop of drones, soft, clicking pulses and nautical clanging (6th form poetry alert), some of which is more or less scored, some entirely improvised.

There is a distinctly nautical feel to the whole album (see 'Brigantine' and 'Shipwrecks' for the most obvious examples), but it's not all drift; a couple of tunes threaten to rock out and James O' Sullivan's electric guitar often gets feral and nasty.

Some songs are barely songs at all in the usual sense or are put together, while others flirt with more conventional forms. Comparisons have been made to people like Tim Buckley, late Talk Talk and Sandy Denny, but they're really not on the money either.

(Abandons neutral tone) listening now after a long while and so having a bit of distance from it, it does feel like we got something quite special for about 70% of the record. Which isn't a bad hit rate. And that the songs we were working with were all pretty special.

Anyway enough of my yakkin', as Marty Di Bergi would say. Have a listen.