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I’m sitting in the garden on one of those rare days when the sun beams brightly, a breeze drifts softly cooling the temperature to a warm tingle, birds sing, all is calm can it really get any better I ask myself. Well yes, on the headphones a CD by a young musician by the name of Meredith Bragg entitled ‘An enquiry into the nature of pressure waves through eleven songs’ more reasonably abbreviated as ‘Volume 1’ is beginning to take shape and I am liking it, yes sir I am liking it a lot.
‘Volume 1’ is signposted throughout with gently plucked ambling folk aplenty, blurry eyed candy pop, from tiny acorns come emotionally towering gems that build slowly but surely into trembling classics in the making. Like a master craftsmen Bragg applies a sweetly shy aspect to the mix what first appear simplistic are on closer inspection intricately drawn and captivating melodies that all at once twinkle and haunt just check out the breezy ‘Cindy’s Song’ with it’s early Go Between’s in thoughtful mood cast. The thing that alerts you immediately to ‘Volume 1’ is the unerring casual ease that seems to glow within – the compositions seductively glide in and out of your life ghost like if you didn’t know better you’d be mistaken for thinking at times that this was the work of a seasoned player in the autumn of his career in fact the recurring theme here is one of an autumnal accent that’s reminiscent for the best part of Archer Prewitt’s ‘White Sky’ from a few years back especially on the achingly gorgeous ‘Before the Storm’. The bitter sweet beauty of the playfully folk-tronic ‘My only enemy’ recalls the curvaceous folds of J Xaverre and Tex La Homa while the lazy aura of the jauntily off centre Elephant 6 shaped ‘Work and Winter’ provides the link between Ashley Park and Teenage Fanclub.
The pastoral hue provided for on the dreamy though poignant ‘Early Sign’ hints at a tender song craft the kind of which will turn you inside out to perform open heart surgery on your emotions as it dips between a softening elegance and an inner melancholia, while the naked resonance of the colourful ‘Seventeen’ subtly nibbles away at classic Damon and Naomi scores. And just when you think you have the measure of it all ‘Waltz No. 1’ comes along to knock you off your comfy stool with its eerie but lulling topsy turvy carnival-esque sea shanty vibe as though Space being asked to re-score the Beatles ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ soundtrack. On this form we await ‘Volume 2’ with baited breath.
MARK BARTON
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