Cavil - Mare's Tails

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5...according to our Brett on Thu 01 Jul, 2010.

What we have here is a fine collection of intimate, folky lullabies from this Leeds-based project. For the most part we're in pure acoustic guitar territory but there are occasional flourishes from other instrumentation and low-key rhythms do rear their heads, contributing heavily to the predominantly waltz-like air of the album.. Apparently three-quarters of the tracks are in 3/4 time so that slightly lolloping feel shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. The songs are clearly of an excellent quality as they're already beginning to sound warmly familiar to me on this second listen and I'm a definite fan of the general 'northernness' of it all.. For the most part it's a hard thing to really put your finger on but the spoken word track that closes things makes it totally overt as it talks us through the normal actions of a normal man on a normal day; made up of melancholy, slight resignation and just a little bit of hope (all over a backing track of piano which sounds as though it's going to break into 'Silent Night' at any moment). As for comparisons, there's something about his voice which reminds me a little of Matt Elliott and Phil reckons fans of bands like The Montgolfier Brothers will want to check it out but pretty much anyone with an appreciation for quality songs will be in safe hands.

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Mares’ tails — known to cloud watchers as cirrus uncinus — are feathery strands of frozen cirrus cloud. Beautiful from afar, they
signal the approach of a warm front, forecasting change and turmoil.
Mares’ Tails is the second album from Leeds-based songwriter Gareth Cavill (two Ls) aka Cavil (one L) and perhaps the most waltz-
infested indie long-player since Warp compiled the early Broadcast singles back in the late 90s. (9 out of 12 tracks here are in 3/4 or
6/8 time.)

Mares’ Tails captures life lived under the presence of prevailing south-westerlies in a Pennine town in a series of folk nocturnes,
filled out with brushed drums, trembling bass, glockenspiel, and the occasional waves of echoing guitars. The sound is gentle,
the emotion generally cloaked in understatement, but palpable; these are lullabies of everyday betrayal and longing. Phantoms of
freedom abound: the wind, a plastic bag waving from the branches of a tree, flocks of migratory geese, and the art of plane spotting.

“‘Northern Englishness’ — that’s the quality I’ve been turning over in my head over the last few weeks. It’s something that Hood, John
Shuttleworth, Jake Thackray and Pulp have — and this album has it in spades. The trouble is it’s difficult to define, it’s unmistakable
yet unfathomable. Whatever it is, there’s an old-fashioned honesty in these songs and their delivery: love, nature and truth conveyed
by an acoustic guitar, a piano and a voice.” —Richard O’Brien, Vespertine & Son

“Swims somewhere in the same sea with Ben Watt’s North Marine Drive or Beaumont’s No Time Like the Past. A melancholy, almost
spiritual album. A very personal joy. Something you might be tempted to keep all to yourself…”
—Corey W. Schmidt, Central Services

“People joke about the English being obsessed with the weather, but I actually do have quite a few books on the subject.”
—Gareth Cavill

Cavil Discography:
“Meet Me at Strumble Head” on An Evening in the Company of the Vespertine, CD, Vespertine (UK), 1998
Philoston, 7”, Acetone Records (France), 1999
“In the Library with the Candlestick” on A Murder in the Company of the Vespertine, CD, Vespertine (UK), 2000
“The Gamble” on But Solid, CD, See Through (Italy) 2000.
“Here Nor There” on The Politics of Disappearance, CD, Radio Khartoum, 2001
Laughing in the Morning, CD album, Acetone Records (France), 2002
“What I Did Next After I Left Number 16” on A Compilation of 55 Bands, 2xCD, 555 Recordings, 2003
“Handing Down” by Cavil and Transpennine DT on Pop Volume 4, CD, PopNews (France), 2004
“Collide” (guest vocal) on Your Place and Time Will Be Mine by Laudanum, CD, Monopsone (France), 2006

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