The Big Eyes Family Players

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4...according to our Ant on Thu 12 Nov, 2009.

It's bloody freezing, winter is upon us the days are short and the nights are long. Thank goodness for 'Warm Room' the fourth album from The Big Eyes Family Players, kicking jack frost in the nuts and melting your heart with all its bittersweet folk bliss. Apparently this is James Green and Co's attempt at dissecting the genre and after listening some more, that seems logical as it covers various moods and flavours. The tracks are largely string based instrumentals although we are treated to occasional vocals such as the passionate female vocal on 'A Lick And A Promise'. Also worth noting is that there is a distinct Spanish influence running through several of the tracks. Stylistically Brett is reminded of Matt Elliot's last album. I was over the moon to read the track title of the final number 'Song For Newborough Warren' inspired by the dunes back in the land of my fathers. An amazing place of natural beauty, and so I'm pleased to report this gently building piece with intricate strings and an improvised feel does the location justice.

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‘Warm Room’ is the fourth album from The Big Eyes Family Players, after ‘Do The Musiking’ (Pickled Egg 2006), Donkeysongs (Rusted Rail 2008) and ‘Folk Songs’ - by James Yorkston & The Big Eyes Family Players (Domino 2009). The album was conceived initially as an ‘ode’ to folk music. Those perhaps expecting an album of string-led polkas and klezmer-styled pieces may be a little surprised.On this occasion, the Players have yet again taken another shape. As ever, led by captain James Green (vocals, guitar, piano, harmonium, cello, percussion, shahi baja, loops, organ, harp, zither), the album features Ellie Bond on violin, Gemma Green on harmonium, Chris Boyd on drums and Heather Ditch on vocals.Rather than necessarily being an album of folk material, ‘Warm Room’ is an attempt to dissect the genre, albeit through the Big Eyes filter and focuses in on those individual elements. There are ‘songs’, in the form of the traditional pieces (the despairing ‘False True Love’) and original numbers (the dream-story ‘White Bones’ and bloody Spanish lament ‘Rojo’), but elsewhere the focus is on texture, the landscape and the mood of the traditional folk form, and is reflected in pieces such as the love-song-raga ‘A Lick and A Promise’, the pastoral ecstasy of ‘Galapagos’, the chaotic skip of ‘The Great Pin Dance’ and closer ‘Song for Newborough Warren’ (inspired by the great sand dunes of the nature reserve on Anglesey, Wales).

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