Locust
2006
Starless & Bible Black
About This Album
William Blake's "green and pleasant land" may be vanishing as fast as Britain's developers can pave it, but British folk-rock seems to retain its pastoral idyll no matter how much modernity you throw at it. Starless & Bible Black, a new trio from Manchester, cadged their name from Dylan Thomas' 1954 play, Under Milk Wood, and their eponymous debut seems drawn from England's rich earth and folk music traditions. But there are enough differences between the band and their forebears that Starless & Bible Black doesn't sound derivative, though you can trace their roots easily enough. The trio is comprised of two home-studio rats -- Pete Philpson and Raz Ullah -- and French-born singer Helene Gautier; the sonic alchemy lends the record its modern feel, while her influence makes the music a bit like an audio Chunnel ride between the pastures of Kent and Pas de Calais' wheat fields. Songs like "Hermoine" and "b.b." are kin to surging Liege & Leaf-era Fairport Convention, even if the narratives don't sound particularly Chaucerian or Hardy-influenced. Others -- "Time Is for Leaving" and "Tredog," for instance -- are gentle acoustic vignettes closer in spirit to the modern rustic sounds of Adem or James Yorkston.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,6,9 and 11)

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