Bedroom recording artist Piers Blewett has taken time out from his Sussex folk act Stick In A Pot to focus on a new solo side project called tiNhearT.
As with Stick In A Pot’s 2011 debut album A Number More Than Nothing, this debut EP under the capital letter minefield tiNhearT moniker has once again made use of home recording techniques. But it’s a decidedly more low key affair than A Number More Than Nothing. Gone is the twinkly folk pop band feel, with Blewett here focusing on his vocals and guitar playing with the occasional background bleep and whistle.
At first, particularly on the EP’s strongest tracks such as the environmental ballad Sick Sick, I yearned for the twinkles and extra instrumentation of his Stick In A Pot debut. But over time the sparse feel of the EP becomes its strength. The fragility of his voice, particularly with lines like ‘so dear old planet, too bad your feeling blue, that’s just too bad for you’ on Sick, Sick, coupled with his simple guitar playing gives the EP an added intimacy and uncluttered feel.
Influences for Blewett on this project include Sparklehorse, Elliot Smith and Daniel Johnston, all experts at drawing the listener in to their at times bleak and pained worlds. However, there’s more of a sense of optimism with Blewett’s songwriting; even the cold and wet winter imagery on A Million Winters sounds somehow uplifting when sung by Blewett. And on second track Maybe the heavy strumming and back ground whistles gives this track an intense and upbeat Neutral Milk Hotel feel.
There’s also a clear sense of melody throughout, something Blewett wanted to ensure came through on the EP, and this is particularly the case on my highlight of the EP Autotune.
Overall this is solid five-track collection (six if you count the instrumental filler Wink) that successfully shows a different side to one of the UK’s most promising and genuine singer songwriters.
7/10
by Joe Lepper
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