Bushstock: Daughter

10 June 2011

Bushstock 2011

The inaugural Bushstock Festival took place during the sunshine of Saturday 4th June in Shepherd’s Bush. Curated by one of our favourite labels, the brilliant and blissful Communion Records, here at The Blue Walrus we’ll be running features all week on the artists we were lucky enough to see at the epic first Bushstock.

Daughter has been an obsession of ours here at TBW HQ for quite some time now, and it was pretty much the idea of seeing the beautiful Elena Tonra and co play in the equally beautiful space of St. Stephen’s Church that had me sold on going to Bushstock on Saturday. Rich, haunting vocals combined with the mesmerising acoustics of the church made the band’s performance a real highlight of the day. Playing songs from their debut EP His Young Heart and older demo tunes, the packed out room was stunned into a pleasant silence for the entirety of Daughter’s set; not a bad response for the festival’s opening performance at 2pm on a Saturday. Having earned support from Lauren Laverne, Communion and HMV’s Next Big Thing already, it seems things are just getting started for this relentlessly talented collective. I just can’t get enough of them. ‘Landfill’, the track below, is a free download and is currently on the BBC 6 Music playlist.

Daughter – Landfill

Bushstock: Louise and the Pins

By: Lauren

7 June 2011

In: News & Leaks, Reviews

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Bushstock 2011

Louise Hull is a fearlessly talented lady, and with the addition of gorgeous girl-group harmonies from The Pins, she and her band offer a distinctive, fresh and downright beautiful brand of ageless swing folk. To say they are a band we like would be dishonest; actually, we fucking love them (hence why they were invited to play the first TBW live show last month). Fitting perfectly into the blend of folk-slash-something Bushstock so effortlessly offered, Louise and the Pins‘ set was a massive highlight of the day, and one that will be repeated all over the place over this summer’s festival season and beyond. Mixing old favourites such as ‘Love Your Lover’ with new gems like ‘Melancholy’, Louise and co’s flawless collection of songs drew a notable crowd and even resulted in some mid-afternoon dancing within the confines of The Goldhawk on Saturday afternoon. Having already garnered support from Laura Marling and Glastonbury Festival, they’re a name to keep an eye and ear on this year. Both tracks mentioned can be heard below, with the wonderful Laura Marling providing guest vocals on ‘Melancholy’.

Louise and the Pins – Love Your Lover

Louise and the Pins – Melancholy (feat. Laura Marling)

Click here for more information about Bushstock Festival and here for more information about the Communion brand.

David’s Lyre @ The Lexington

By: Lauren

6 June 2011

In: Reviews

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Islington, 23 May 2011: The first thing to clarify here is that David’s Lyre is the musical project of multi-instrumentalist Paul Dixon; thus, he’s not called David, nor is anyone in the band called David (as far as I know). So my only expectation for this show at The Lexington – that I would be watching a bloke called David ‘do some stuff’ – was not met. Luckily, however, the music more than made up for the mysterious name-related dilemma that occurred.

Having garnered previous support from the NME, The Fly and The Guardian, David’s Lyre offer ethereal and mesmerising alternative rock tunes with an intensely otherworldly quality about them. The music itself is unique and well worth a listen, but the recordings really don’t do the live performance justice. The band’s set at The Lexington was brilliantly atmospheric and mixed a humbling kind of musical passion with an incredible, genuine talent in performance.

Of all the musical risks I’ve taken recently, going to see David’s Lyre live has certainly been the one that paid off the most. I predict big things in this band’s future.