Y
ou may remember our feature on Navigator records in the last issue of Properganda,
where we likened the fledgling folk and acoustic label to a performance sports car
going from zero to sixty since revving up less than a year ago. As this latest batch of
releases shows they’re still racing ahead without so much as a pit-stop so far in 2008.
MAWKIN/CAUSLEY
FOLK
Mawkin/Causley are a self proclaimed ‘folk Boyband’, two words you don’t often hear in the
same sentence, but check the facts… They’re young, good-looking, sharp dressers with a nice
line in rock star photoshoots.
They’re also technically a supergroup, combining the talents of acclaimed Essex band
Mawkin with ex Devil’s Interval singer Jim Causley. The combination of the instrumentalists’
enthusiastic vibrancy with Causley’s rich voice is a great match, helped by the warm, woody
production of Megson’s Stu Hanna.
Traditional songs and tunes like Botany Bay and New York Trader are respectfully but
thrillingly re-arranged, on this 6-track track mini-album, a great taster for things to come.
JOHN MCCUSKER
John McCusker is becoming something of a one-man music scene in his native Scotland. He’s
also one of the cover stars of this month’s magazine with Drever, McCusker, Woomble, so this
timely 2CD re-issue of two of his earlier solo albums works as a welcome reminder of how
he got where he is today.
Largely inspired by traditional Scottish music, McCusker’s style on the fiddle, whistles and
cittern is light and airy, allowing the tunes to dance along with an infectious swing. Even the
slow airs move with an uplifting breeze.
DEAN OWENS
Dean Owens is a Glasgow singer/songwriter who’s debut album Whiskey Hearts is an
affecting slice of life that has earned the praise of renowned author Irvine Welsh as well as
fellow Scottish songwriter Eddie Reader for its understated emotional drama.
Raining In Glasgow is a touching portrait of loneliness that finds beauty under grey skies,
evoking the warmth of home on the rainy streets of a big city.
Man From Leith is a heart-wrenching ode to Owen’s father. Like Martin Simpson’s similarly-
themed Never Any Good, it’s the small, personal details that really get you, as the singer
recalls snapshot childhood memories to paint a bigger picture of his departed father’s life.
As Irvine Welsh points out in his sleevenotes to the album, “every time he sings a song, he
means it and feels it with his every fibre of his being. Now that is something special.”
MARY HAMPTON
Mary Hampton is perhaps Britain’s best kept secret at the moment, but that all looks set to
change with the release of her debut full length album My Mother’s Children.
Already gaining the praise of mainstream press, as well as the Eliza Carthy stamp of approval
(“an album I know I’m going to love for life”), Mary’s childlike dream/nightmare-scapes are
like an even darker version of Rachel Unthank and the Winterset’s ethereal hypnotism. Some
of the songs on this album are genuinely scary. Her delicate soprano voice may bear the
English folk stamp of Anne Briggs or Shirley Collins, but the creaking cello, plinking parlor
piano and dry, ambient production gives the album a ghosts-in-the-attic sheen, invoking a
severe case of the willies if listened to alone at night!
Mary’s wide-eyed journey through this Lewis Carroll-esque world of talking dogs, frozen
sparrows and quaint, Victorian Englishness is charming, eccentric and chillingly beautiful.
So still we wait for the Navigator label to put a foot wrong, although at this rate it looks like
we’ll be waiting for quite a while. Good thing they’ve given us some great records to help
pass the time!
Jon Roffey
35 Properganda 10
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