STORNAWAY - EP REVIEW

Stornaway - Bonxie Unplucked  EP (Cooking Vinyl) 
Stornaway - Bonxie Unplucked EP

Release Date: 18th September 2015

Everyone's favourite Oxford folk combo Stornaway with a trixy little six track EP and we should all be very excited about it. The entirely acoustic 'Bonxie Unplucked' EP opens up with 'Between The Saltmarsh And The Sea' which opens cautiously like a forlorn sea shanty before unfolding in to a Divine Comedy meets Belle & Sebastian on an uninhabited island kind of indie-folk ditty. On 'Get Low' there is a more jaunty feel driven by a punchy acoustic rhythm and enveloped in some tight and sugary sweet vocal harmonies that would the Beach Boys or Teenage Fanclub a run for their money. There's a lovely bit of muted Banjo on 'Man On Wire' and a gentle rhythm that creates the perfect tune for walking down a dusty track in a Summer drenched field of corn.

Rippling guitar strings and some perfectly dissonant harmonies are liberally splashed with a wash of cymbals for 'The Road You Didn't Take' and you are transported to an otherworldly place at dawn as the fanciful creatures scatter in to the shadows when the sunlight creeps in to their twilight world. 'Lost Youth' has an almost cheeky cockney feel about but that lyrical content has bigger horizons and greater ideas to wrap you up in. The EP comes to an end with one of the best reworkings I've heard in a very, very long time. Stornaway's treatment of Yazz's 80s classic 'The Only Way Is Up' infuses an emotion and deep sense of feeling in to a song that I've always enjoyed but only now fully understand. So with just the use of acoustic instrumentation these boys have transported us to other worlds, created beautiful pop harmonies and changed the face of the 80s. Not bad for a cheeky little EP, eh?


More information: https://www.facebook.com/stornoway?fref=ts

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