Hannah Peel - Rebox EP

We love it when a plan comes together. What started with a beautifully low-key take on New Order’s ‘Blue Monday’ has since become a labour of love for composer Hannah Peel. Hailing from Liverpool, Hannah takes the delicate sounds of music boxes and a raft of other instruments to concoct gently enchanting suites which seem to meld the repeated melody patterns of Steve Reich and the twinkling poise of Colleen. Re-Boxed is simply beguiling in reassessing a handful of iconic 1980s pop songs, providing a unique twist on those synth-pop vignettes and lacing them with a swelling beauty and sense of melancholy. A cross pollinated doozy that traps the spirit of traditional music in the magnetic flux of nu-folks crackle and beats.Without Liz Fraser, the Cocteau Twins’ dreamy ‘Sugar Hiccup’ is rendered as an otherworldly lullaby, Hannah’s velvety tones sparring with the circling melody. There’s a poignant feel to all of these re-imaginings, particularly for her take on ‘Tainted Love’. The bruised sheen here is arguably closer to Gloria Jones than the arch Soft Cell version, imbuing the song with a heavy-hearted veneer especially via Hannah’s sighing vocals.There’s also an interpretation of OMD’s ‘Electricity’ (featuring Andy Mclusky) but it’s the aforementioned ‘Blue Monday’ which is most arresting. Deftly recreating the melody and rhythm on music boxes, the multi-tracked and intertwining vocals lend this a sumptuous tone, quietly pulsing with life and warmth, making it far removed from the icy original. Carefully crafted, these four songs are touchingly reinvigorated and presented here as beautiful and intricately textured compositions in their own right. Though these songs are inextricably linked with a particular period, they’re shaped and performed in a way which divorces them from any specific time.Hannah has already enjoyed exposure on such BBC hotspots as The Culture Show as well as an appearance on Later with folk revivalists and acolytes The Unthanks with whom she is on tour at present.Edition of 300 7” singles in bespoke sleeves.

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