CRESCENT – little waves

(CD / LP / digital, Fat Cat)

Oh no, I used up all my current stash of seaside and ocean metaphors for the new album by Songs of Green Pheasant. Could it be that Fat Cat is releasing a lot of seaside-influenced records because it is located in Brighton? I have been to Brighton once or twice some years, almost decades ago and it was wet, windy and cold each time. That has to make you longing for human and organic music, that warms up your hands and ears and the rest of the body. Songs that add to a vision that is larger and older than the “download now”-screaming that most music that is publicly recognized seems to have degenerated into. Music that is as mysterious as the sea. At least sometimes. For the slow and lonely evenings, when the memories of the party where Mice Parade and The Twilight Sad blew the roof off the building are slowly fading.

Well, albeit the title of this album other, more enigmatic and mysterious pictures will fit Crescent even better. They have been a lot more enigmatic and cryptic than most other songwriter-bands on Fat Cat (and other labels) anyway. Around for 14 years, releasing five albums and remaining as much a glance in the alley and outside the interested publications as possible, then taking fours between this and the album before (called “by the roads and the fields”). Claiming to be a six-member band, but relying on acoustic guitar and singing mostly of leader Matt Jones, adding drums and bass and organ along the way, as seems fit, most of the people on stage will be waiting for their cue. But if they get it right, the effect is more than just a little ripple on the surface of the sea.

“So strange, so strange” as they sing on “cup”, right there on the second song on this album, which typically meanders between turning into a wonderful refrain and then flowing some other place. We are all way too spoiled by the magic of Bonnie Prince Billy, so that we probably can’t spot the magic of another kind that is hidden in the soft strumming and slow pondering of Crescent. But it is there and conceivable if you lay down, close your eyes and let the magic flow. The quiet chorus of “Nearly ready” with its wonderful addition of trumpet at the perfect moment. The flowing arrangement of “drift” and the way the percussions work their way into an almost frenzy that never happens. The haphazard beginning of “Hey September” and its low and slow pace throughout.

This is not some stupid Harry Potter magic – you don’t need to buy a 7 € plastic wand at the next supermarket to feel enlightened – but the real thing. The kind of magic music can do to you. A lot of the so called freak folk hype of nowadays is more like Harry Potter, working its way into the pages of the glossy music mags with silly hexes and the calculated posture of weirdness. Not so here, not with Matt Jones. Even if one song was recorded in an old cinema and the field recordings include a clarinet duetting with a flock of geese and the intricate and subtle mixing of noises into the arrangements, the pace and direction are honest, clear and physical. Just listen to a song like “before” and its warm arangement and melody line and be taken to a happier place.