Sons of Noel & Adrian: s/t

After the quintuple whammy of Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, The Dodos, Shearwater and Duels leaving an indelible mark on the world of folk this very year, surely there cannot be much more ground to tread?

Sons of Noel & Adrian beg to differ. The Brighton-based ten-strong collective featuring former members of Hope of the States and members of Lightspeed Champion's band bring Britain fully into the arena of neofolk / indie-folk / folk revival or whatever you want to call it. (except for folkcore, then you're just so very stupid)

With their self-titled debut, the Sons... have touched crease with the standards of the revitalised genre. Jacob Jon Richardson has perfected his brittle and wearied vocals and is ably backed by the swelling ranks of accomplished musicians. At first, the weight of ten members appears to be wasted, with tracks not feeling as gigantic as they perhaps should. The debut from the collective is a dark horse though, as you shall soon see.

Opening tracks "Indigo" and "Kernow" (the Cornish language word for Cornwall, one presumes) set the scene well, fleshing out the sonic palette without reaching too far into the realm of experimentation. It's when the songs pass the four-minute mark though, that things get a whole lot more interesting as the band obliterate the walls surrounding them, heartily embracing the post-rock leanings which they proudly proclaim of themselves. "Damien's" propelling mid-section relents perfectly before the finish, allowing the very strums of the guitar to embody the persona of chaos within the lightning storm, each one a chilling warning to evacuate quicker than you can say.... don't strike me with lightning, please.

As we touched on before, subtlety is the name of the game here. The [insert term for a group of ten musicians; we ran out after 'nontet'] play lightly with their compositions, achieving nuanced variances with the deftest of ease. Pulling all of the musical tricks out of the bag, songs shift between consonance and dissonance. Melodies and counter-melodies and even an impressive staggered trio between a bevy of whistlers and an amalgamated melody of acoustic guitar and string-section. It may be pretentious to claim that only those with an ear for the details with be able to fully embrace the intricacies of the band, but that doesn't make it any less true, which is a shame really 'cause it means everything went completely over our heads... just kidding... but really.

The musical background of the members matters little, few will be able to make the link between Sons... and Hope of the States and even less so with Lightspeed Champion so this album is unlikely to fall into the vein of 'recommended if you like their previous work'. Also, it may be a case of severe overexposure, but the wearied vocals hit wearisome at some point during the mid-section of the album. So consumed with their own weight that they begin to lean heavily on the sumptuous orchestration, diminishing the impact that the vocals of Bon Iver exude with relentlessness.

At least now we shall have a British band we can proudly proclaim as a counter to the raving over the lesser Fleet Foxes. If only the radar was pointing this way.