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Album Reviews
Diving Down - music that hovers delicately between experimental and psyche-folk. (August 08, 2009)
Not everyone will like this album, and that’s a shame because although this album demands effort it
rewards perseverance. There’s both depth and clarity – those that persist will
enjoy both. The subject is the debut album ‘Diving Down’ from
multi-instrumentalist Gemma Willams (aka Woodpecker Wooliams). It offers mellow,
melodious, engaging ethereal music that hovers delicately between experimental
and psyche-folk.
The drive behind its engagement is Gemma’s voice –
alternating between gently soothing and sadly lamenting. There’s more than an
overtone of Kate Bush in there but Gemma’s vocals are more honeyed without Ms
Bush’s more strident tones. The songs are tuneful poems with a diverse mix of
instruments and sound inserts blended into the melange. The list of instruments
and devices Gemma plays makes interesting reading in itself. It includes clarinet,
descant recorder, kora, omnichord, treble recorder, glockenspiel, washboard,
beer bottles, cowbells, harmonium, penny whistle, celtic harp, casio keyboard,
bells, snare and bass drum.
‘Put a Bird’ opens with its other-worldly, wraithlike tones
and you know what to expect. The second track, ‘The Lamentable Love of the
Barometer’ tells an inventive story of failed love between a barometer and a thermometer
– not your everyday theme – but to combine Gemma’s airy voice and insistent glockenspiel
works wonderfully. ‘Diving Down’ is a dark little song about drowning (probably
most ‘Bush-like’ in its construction) that combines water-filled beer bottles
with washboard and cowbells to create the water-effects – you have to hear it
to understand. ‘Out Walking’ explores life-and-death, building penny whistle on
harmonium to deliver its message.
Darkness, foreboding, earthbound wandering and airy mists –
they are all here. Your mood has to be right but when it is this is worth a
long, serious peaceful listen. ‘Diving Down’ is out on 20th August on Autumn Ferment Records –
www.autumnfermentrecords.com
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