You can read the full article that this excerpt is from by clicking here!
Following a three-for-three success of Jack Cooper sets it was time for Olden Yolk, another Arbiter recommendation. They were comprised of band members Shane Butler (Quilt) and Caity Shaffer although the full band consists of a few more members, I think may have been testing receivership in the UK (again, something we saw with The Burning Hell) – Being unfamiliar with any of their work bar one song I knew I wouldn’t notice the difference to not having a full band and sure enough they laid out a genre-deceiving array of songs that swept the budding Monday audience of Bristol off of their feet.
There’s an autumnal sensation through their songs, there’s a brush of wind that winds through them with you, their cool and crisp but keep you wrapped up warm with some coco. The sound is easily identifiable as something that’s emerged from New York, there’s an inescapable city sound (and this goes for anywhere) that urges the appropriate imagery.
Every ingredient from the dreamy, sparse guitar, coming in like cool, sporadic rain over textures of keys, drums and bass and those two perfectly harmonising voices that are as harsh as they are warm create a rich soundscape that one could cwtch up in for all eternity. There are a number of lines that I particularly love because they’re arguably simple but delivered in an impactive way that makes you realise how true they are.
Sometimes, you feel logical. Sometimes you don’t”
Whenever I hear them they tap into something deep, their music is like someone giving me a stern but fair life-lesson bit of advice, or making me question doubts that I have, they are evoked and I can’t put them away afterwards. They make me crave a wanton rationality over things that can’t be rationalised or to quantify the infinite – I refer to the aforementioned effective lyric.
It’s like a well-rounded civilised conflict, the rhythm is optimistic and dancing, the words, delivered in a two-strong harmony is the logical voice trying to wind away from the undertone and melancholy of the nuances within the music, the fuzzed guitar, the array of sharp and foreshadowing notes, the odd time signature. They are the band that perfectly encapsulate the inner-arguments that we all experience everyday. But it sounds so lovely that whilst you’re reminded of your anxieties and flaws you’re also okay with them because at that moment in time it all just sounds dandy.
I bought the album that night and have played it many times! We are very excited to be travelling back to Bristol on November 6th to see them all out in full force at The Crofters Rights! – Hopefully see you there.
