Kid Harpoon – The First EP
It’s brief, it’s cheap and you should buy it. The music is a sort of a halfway station between Johnny Flynn and Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes: at once a sort of distracted acoustic indie, turning sharply into rhythmic English folk from time to time. Tom Hull’s voice has a terrific rasp to it at times, and he has that crucial ability to be able to turn it from ragged to tender in the blink of an eye. There’s actually even the odd hint of Colin Meloy here and there.
Hull seems like a slightly secretive sort, perhaps a little protective of what the pop world might do to someone like him and, more specifically, his music. His website is accessible only by entering a code from one of the wristbands he distributes at gigs. I guessed lucky and managed to sneak in, and you can see why he isn’t too keen on random punters swanning about in his internets.
More so than any other artist I’ve come across he seems to use this as a place to communicate directly with his audience in an unfiltered way that would give the CEO of EMI either a heart attack or a belly laugh. He posts demos, little musical thoughts, things he’s been playing with and ideas he’s playing with, all with the request to please not post them elsewhere as they are entirely unfinished. A lot has been made of Radiohead’s new business model, but that works easily for them as they are already global. This kind of model, genuinely making friends with your fans, is a really nice idea and one I think other people should seriously consider emulating.
It all hinges, needless to say, on whether or not the music is any good but on this count you need not fear. He lacks the pastoral irony of Johnny Flynn perhaps, but his brisker, more direct style works for me in a different way. When he slows it down and the stomp becomes more delicate the picked guitars and odd embellishment of harp bring a melancholy atmosphere to songs illuminated by Hull’s well-judged shifts in melody. There’s great variety on this little record actually, from rattle-along folk to the sadder acoustic tales like As it Always Was, to the borderline psych-folk of the terrific Aeroplanes & Neon Lights.
If he can keep up this sort of superb output I am really looking forward to what Kid Harpoon brings us in the future. Really nicely done.
Kid Harpoon – Small Town War
Kid Harpoon – First We Take Manhattan
website | myspace | hype | buy the ep
I like what I hear, especially the cover of First We Take Manhattan. The biggest injustice Leonard Cohen ever did to his career was to allow all those synthesizers onto I’m Your man.
I know. I am buying a record player for Christmas and Leonard Cohen’s first three album will be among the first I go out and buy.
Oh, excellent, some Toad related vinyl? A USB I take it, then?!
i love his song “late for the devil”. he was busking this on tv and someone nicked his money.
Doesn’t he sing a song about a milkmaid?
Probably Ed, although not for certain. I suppose if I really think about it it’s the only sensible choice.
He does indeed Beth – first song on the EP.
i like kid harpoon, he’s really worth catching live. he looks like an overgrown pixie, very energetic and bouncy and strumming like a maniac, won’t stay still for a second even when he sits at a piano for a couple of songs. i saw him at the roundhouse opening for the maccabees (who were disappointing) and he really won the place over.
Yet to have a chance to see him live, but definitely going to jump at the opportunity if it arrives. I read a ton of really positive reviews when I had a quick Google before writing this.
I saw him live a week ago opening for We Are Scientists and was blown away! Unfortunately, they only passed around the wristbands before the show, and I wasn’t going to sign up for a mailing list of a guy I didn’t even know that I liked. So is there any chance you could pass along that website code? I’d love to check it out. Thanks!
Saw Kid Harpoon & The Powers That Be; Norwich Waterfront supporting W.A.S. and they were amazing he is real rock and roll class.
Excellent, because I am going to see him in Edinburgh in a few weeks – really looking forward to it.