Saviour
This starts off very gently. Piano led, with a cello and violins playing the county melody, then acoustic guitar to strum the rhythm, this as an opener as a perfect choice.
“You were a precious stone,
Now I am all alone,
I’m fading, yeah I’m fading.”
I like this line.
The drums come in late in the game around 2:20 mark, and it’s a great performance all around. Strong opening track!
White Horses
This is a piano led number, the second track in sequence on the EP, I’m liking Art Block’s vocals on this, he starts out low, then the chorus comes in and he opens up fully, it’s showing off his range.
The piano playing is impressing, nice chords which are simple but with some thoughtfully picked out melodies too. It’s joined by a guitar being plucked as well in the second chorus, as well as a nice synth too. Of the three tracks on the EP this is probably my favourite.
“A solid pine
A crocus that shines
A liberty mine
Enwrapped in a shrine
A poet who cut
Words from a leaf
We climbed up a horse
And felt some relief
And love is a power
That gives us belief
A ray of light that
Your soul to keep
We see White Horses
Views blowing our mind
A helter-skelter
A bitter decline.”
The first verse is thought provoking and the way it’s structured is very much a poem set to music, and I like this, it rarely happens nowadays with that intention but I like this…
Lots to think about.
Low Light
This is my favourite track on the EP, it’s a gentle ballad, Art Block shows the most delicate part of his voice, matching vocals to emotion, I love the piano playing on this as well. The progression is really simple, but very affective. He gets the strings involved, and it just gives it that nice little lift. I like the drums on this as well, it’s just overall a well produced track.
Lyrics:
“A sunlight,
A low light,
The sky’s bright,
I slept through the night,
I drank the cup of poison,
Tears in oceans.”
In all a very well put together EP.
Art Block is a multi-instrumentalist alt-folk singer-songwriter from East London, England. 2022 has seen the release of his beautiful transparent violet vinyl of The Basement EP stocked in Rough Trade East, London and further afield in Wax and Beans, Bury, Market Deeping, Ebbw Vale and Huddersfield independent record stores. The vinyl was reviewed by Clash Magazine and featured on their monthly column aswell as appearing on Tiktok. A collection of live recordings at St John’s Hoxton mastered by Pete Maher has also been released (supported by new music champion Robert Carlyle), as well as “Seagulls EP” produced by modern classical composer Jay Chakravorty (Bryde) and mixed by Shuta Shinoda who has worked with artists nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. In 2021 Art teamed up again with Ian Barter (Paloma Faith, Amy Winehouse) to release his self-titled “Art Block Extended Play” which was well received enjoying extensive airplay and reviews. The previous The Basement EP was curated by the sound archives of the British Library and featured on Amazing Radio, international podcasts and music blogs, reaching over 250k streams on Spotify without any label or management. Various remastered songs were also released with the aid of Dolby. In 2019 Art released a debut acoustic album, a collection of songs recorded in a day at The Premises studio in Hackney and mastered by the legendary Pete Maher (U2 Pixies Jack White Newton Faulkner) The eminent folk guitarist Ben Walker produced his ‘Borderline EP’ which was released to critical acclaim. Eliza EP was released in 2018. The music video of the title track “Eliza” has been played on Sky TV Keep it Country on the Folk Show.
