- Genre: 'Folk'
- Release Date: '26th October 2018'
Our Rating:
Nothing to do with the smash Netflix series – the first season of which was stunning, the second of which felt rather rushed and significantly less atmospheric – Gypsyfingers’ latest offering, ‘Stranger Things’ is an eclectic hybrid of folk and rock, delivered with an ethereal twist.
4 years on from their debut, ‘Circus Life’, the band who centre around songwriter Victoria Coghlan and producer Luke Oldfield (son of Mike) deliver a set that’s evolved, and draws in the most subtle and nuanced ways, influences from Victoria’s classical training and love of dance music and Luke’s engagement with folk, rock, and pop.
The real talent and telling skill is that they draw everything together seamlessly in a soft infusion. Luke’s previously worked in a production capacity with acts as diverse as Metronomy, The Wytches, and The Last Dinosaur, and he’s evidently adaptable in his approach and sensitive to the needs of the music.
‘Half World’ opens the album with a shuffling trip-hop beat, rolling piano and chiming glockenspiel and a soaring prog guitar break: it’s a kind of cross between shoegaze and expansive, atmospheric, folk-infused alternative rock, and as the big drums break into the mix, the lister is transported to another plane on a rolling rhythmic crescendo. It packs a lot into just over four minutes.
The breezy, summery, indie pop of ‘Hey Maria’ marks quite a contrast, and it rapidly becomes apparent just how wide-ranging Gypsyfingers’ sound is, especially when placed against the rolling acoustic folk vibes of songs like ‘Bruised’ and the tile track and the wispy, strolling country vibes of ‘Blue Sky’.
There’s a lot of rolling percussion, reverby guitar, and layered vocal harmony on offer here, and while ‘Stranger Things’ is primarily about expansive sound it also offers a degree of intimacy and mellowness. Ultimately, it’s the variety and attention to detail that makes ‘Stranger Things’ such an appealing and enticing album.
