Every now and again I like to take a good gloomy mood and run with it. Make the most of a melancholy moment, indulge a sad Sunday – in the nicest possible way. These occasions are always accompanied by a soundtrack (and red wine). In the past, this has included a bit of Low, or Nick Cave, or even Scottish misery merchants Arab Strap. But I’ve recently been introduced to The Kindling, a London-based band that manages to make muted melancholia so enticing that I may well make an effort to linger low a little while longer.
The Kindling seems an ideal name for a band whose sound, to me, is a bit like something burgeoning, but going nowhere fast – and that’s a good thing. It’s comfortable place to occupy, a dreamy, hushed world of minor notes and dark harmonies. Their second EP ‘Half Light’ is a study in restraint and subtlety, culminating in beautifully dark folk music, accompanied by finely realised lyrics.
Formed in early 2011 as a vehicle for singer/songwriter Guy Weir’s songs, The Kindling has developed from a duo featuring Leon Baker on drums (whom Weir met when they were both involved in a second incarnation of late 1990s dreampop band Drugstore) to a four-piece line-up that now features Tomas Garcia on drums, bassist Ben Ramster and Steph Lunt on backing vocals. They’ve had some successes already, with the lead single from first EP ‘From out of the wreckage’, getting them on to the Glastonbury Festival Emerging Talent Competition long list in 2011, and support slots for Daughter and Laura Stevenson.
But it’s Half Light that has grabbed music bloggers’ attention. There’s something of pistols at ten paces about first track The Longwave, which conjures an image of a bleak, desolate American-west landscape at twilight. Breathe In has elements of the more mellow moments of Radiohead (Exit music for a film, No surprises). I also hear bits of Oklahoma band Other Lives in this, but, with both comparisons, The Kindling are still much more subtle, more pared back.
Hunting Stars is the standout track for me. The lyrics have fantastic imagery (‘You are the clench inside a fist’), and sweet sentiment. None of the Dreaming is as stripped as it gets, just Weir singing and plucking at minor chords, backed by little more than those haunting harmonies and the odd little quiver of the tambourine.
Influences such as Sparklehorse, Mount Eerie, and Tom Waits are evident in Half Light’s slow-burn simmer, and Weir’s voice has a stillness that commands your attention – I found myself hanging on every word. It is music that is very in touch with itself, self-contained and a little bit strange. It managed to make me feel both hazy in body and sharp in mind.
It’s something I can picture myself listening to alone, on a dark, cold, rainy Sunday afternoon – and loving it. They’re about to start work on their next set of recordings for release in autumn/winter, and I’ll be listening out for what comes next with great interest.
8/10
by Patricia Turk
For more information about The Kindling visit their website here.
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