Yes, they are indeed called Gossamer Albatross. It’s a bloody silly name, but for some reason I rather like it. For an obscure bunch from Hereford, where not much has happened since they dumped Newcastle out of the FA Cup with that goal all those years ago as far as I can tell, they really are surprisingly good. There’s a touch of baroque folk pop about them, but the necessary limit on the number of musicians for a group at this sort of embryonic stage of their career keeps the sound nice and spare.

Lewis Gordon is only 18, and according to the press snippets on their MySpace page is ‘a self-proclaimed musical genius and snob’ prone to ‘giving damning criticisms of other local bands on the Hereford Music forum’. I have no idea if this is true, and although it does make the fellow seem a bit of a prat, I can’t imagine there being much to prove him wrong on the Hereford indie circuit, although I really would have no idea.

His email to me was pleasant and to the point, describing the music thus: “Our influences include Final Fantasy, Neutral Milk Hotel, Islands and lots of other ace american indie stuff.” I don’t know any of these groups particularly well, so I thought it best to just throw the names up and let you draw your own conclusions.  Myself, I am reminded of the Ralfe Band, who released a similar album of floating folk pop a couple of years ago.

Gordon’s voice flirts with melodrama, lending a faintly preposterous air to the music when I first heard it.  I was grabbed though, and the more I hear it the more I am enjoying it.  Plucked guitar and airy strings give a similarly unreal accompaniment, which means this has quite a dreamy air about it half the time.  On Held Hands the piano provides a welcome grounding, keeping the rise and fall of the rest of the music from floating off into the air.  It also adds some deeper notes, which make it somehow more mysterious and gripping than some of its lighter brethren.

All in all, this would be five pounds very well spent indeed.

Gossamer Albatross – Held Hands

myspace | buy the ep

As I’m only posting one track by Gossamer Albatross (it’s only a four song EP) I thought I might as well pop one in from the Ralfe Band, seeing as most of you have probably never heard of them either.

The Ralfe Band – Albatross Waltz

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a quite splendid podcast. Not the chat – there’s actually blessed little of that for a change – but the actual music. There may not be the one or two big names I tend to try and slip in to make sure that casual listener more likely to have a listen and thus bring an audience to the smaller bands, but it just didn’t quite happen. I like to do it for myself too, really, but for some reason they just didn’t quite get a look in this week, although I did throw in a rather obscure Pogues track, but it just seemed fine without them.

I really like this one though, and there are some excellent new things to hear, so get stuck in. It’s all quite an acoustic folk-pop sort of atmosphere, so I hope that sort of thing is your bag, but I’ve thrown in a couple of slightly different things, like David Cronenberg’s Wife, Mother & the Addicts and A Hawk & a Hacksaw to make sure it’s not too one-paced. So get stuck in, my little Toadlings, music a-plenty and jolly fine stuff too!

Toadcast #8 – New Things & Englishness[audio http://media.libsyn.com/media/songbytoad/ToadcastNo8.mp3]

1. Donny Hue & the Colours – Humming With the Flowerbirds (01.01)
2. Monkey Swallows the Universe – Jimmy Down the Well (06.19)
3. Emmy the Great – Canopies & Grapes (10.26)
4. Mother & the Addicts – Are Others (14.30)
5. Champion Kickboxer – Perforations (20.42)
6. Jake Flowers & the Carol-Anne Showband – Annabel (26.06)
7. Johnny Flynn & the Sussex Wit – Tickle Me Pink (28.07)
8. Mirah & Spectratone International – Supper (34.09)
9. Patti Page – Old Cape Cod (38.01)
10. A Hawk & a Hacksaw – The Way the Wind Blows (41.52)
11. David Cronenberg’s Wife – My Ukrainian Girlfriend (47.20)
12. The Pogues – First Day of Forever (54.08)
13. Iron & Wine – Kingdom of the Animals (57.22)
14. The Ralfe Band – Albatross Waltz (63.23)
15. A Hawk & a Hacksaw – Portlandtown (68.19)