Thursday, November 20, 2014

EP Review :: Tenterhook - Tenterhook 2




Tenterhook

Tenterhook 2

November 24 2014 (Cartoon Records)

7.5/10

Words: Alison Mack


A fairly rapid follow-up to the August release of his debut EP, shows young Archie Faulks is not about wasting time sitting back on tours with the likes of Ásgeir on his European tour and playing London's massive Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Not bad for a young musician who few had heard of this time last year.

Like his first, this second EP also contains four tracks, including the recently unveiled 'Go Easy', and adhere to a similar pattern with Faulks' emotion-rife vocals flowing over often minimal, but uniquely affecting, instrumentation and melancholic guitars, although the majority of the songs on this second outing are more upbeat than previous.

The EP opens on the breezy 'Go Easy', which leads onto the more ponderous 'Whispers'. 'Steady', composed around mainly just acoustic guitar and signature fragile vocal to start before violin strains enter, is the most down-key of the bunch, while 'Rest My Head' may sound fairly somnolent, it is kept afloat by its back drum beat.

Slow-burn, articulately constructed, measured compositions to feed the heart.

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