Hamilton Yarns are an oddball folk project from Brighton, England that has one of the most idiosyncratic sounds I've heard in quite a long time. Marrying found sounds, drone, modern composition and collage with simple repetitive folk figures and orchestrations, storytelling, conversational call and responses, and a good deal of bedroom indie pop. It's a strange basket of fruit I'll give you that, but it really really works. It's mysterious and playful without being precious, compositionally engaging despite feeling nearly void of predetermined structure (how do they create these songs? is it improv? do they even try to perform them largely the same way they were recorded? or do they appear out of the air once, during the solstice, then wisp away on the wings of forest sprites to a castle guarded by fearsome gnomes??). Are they an apparition? A prayer or meditation? Or are they merely like a drippy watercolor from an illustration in a children's book? Unlike drone oriented freak folk outfits (like Six Organs of Admittance), Hamilton Yarns aren't interested in embellishing timbre for the purposes of a sensory overhaul, some kind of enlightened thinking, or a spatial projection of landscape or auditory architecture, they're writing songs. Even the found sounds aren't meant to evoke a specific scene, they're just the beautiful small workings of everyday things animated by the everyday. I imagine them getting up and ritually cranking out these songs with the ease of folding laundry. And unlike bedroom folk pop, like Lullatone, or Mum, Hamilton Yarns aren't exploring their inner six year old by putting on funny hats and having tea with a table full of dolls. They sound more like a group that's utterly comfortable doing just about anything in the studio together. Now this may include jibber-jabber, counting from 1 to 3, and attempted solos on instruments they've never played, like a bicycle wheel (although something tells me they've got a resident bicycle wheelist in the group). And while these are most certainly songs, within each the structures are sprawling and various. They don't just find a pretty idea and roam till their high wears off. They've got definition, they've got a shape. On paper, the similarities between this band and the Books, one of the other great found sound folk experimentalists, are quite marked, but by ear, they're super distinct. The Books have a greater emphasis on virtuosity, on narrative, and on emotional catharsis. Hamilton Yarns are far more elusive instrumentally, conceptually, and especially emotionally. None of these songs are overtly sad, none happy either, none nostalgic (unless you are in fact a gnome), and none futuristic. They're simply a strange, frequently lovely, frequently fascinating dialogue between calm, focused, inescapably musical people.
These tracks below are from various albums since 2001, but the band is anticipating three releases this year alone. Go to their website where they offer free downloads of most of their catalogue.
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