Sproatly Smith - The Yew And The Hare

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4...according to our Business Lady on Thu 30 Jul, 2009.

Sproatly Smith's 'The Yew and the Hare' is the second installment of three albums recorded especially for Reverb Worship (Reverb Worship are raining down the releases this week!!!) that explore the world of pyschedelic folk. Sproatly Smith have a preference for pagan-esque folk and they do a fine job of invoking a haunting atmosphere/spirit within their music. Traditional elements and mashed with psychedelic elements with great success. 'Pretty Saro' is a wonderful example of traditional harmonised folk singing, you can even hear distant water flow, thats how in touch with nature they are. Psychedelic elements do creep into the mix, check out the guitar outro on 'The Time I've Lost In Wooing' is mental and 'Leafing' is a wildly abstract idea that manipulates balls and whistles to great effect. Of course, no psyche folk homage would be complete without a reference to The Wicker Man and 'The Yew and the Hare' is no exception. Sproatly Smith take on 'Gently Johnny' with enthusiasm and charm, they've even added thier own sexy sounds, cheeky. Gimme some of that there nature shit, yeah! A nice collection well worth further investigation.

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A while back when annoucing the release of the Wyrdstone "Cuffern" cd, I mentioned that it was the first in a trio of superbly wondeful debut releases of a psychedelic folk nature.All three of these get my highest possible recommendation.Well, here is the second of the trio.This time we have "The Yew And The Hare" by Sproatly Smith.Again, this album has been recorded especially for me over a number of months.I must admit that I have been smitten by the music on this cd.We have twelve tracks which takes a pastoral folk feel and twists it with a psychedelic edge adding voices,samples and field recordings to the mix.The cd features twelve tracks including a lovely version of "Gently Johnny" which was originally featured on the soundtrack to the original "Wickerman" film.

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