Every year there always seems to be one or two albums or acts that totally blow you away, bands that seem to come from nowhere, bang, have that !! 2006 was definitely The Felice brothers for me, last year undoubtedly was Bon Iver and The Bowerbirds and now 2008 so far are Blackbird Harmony and a band I think are about to take 2009 by storm is London’s Mumford and Sons. Within me playing the first few lines of a track of theirs on my Sunday evening radio show over at http://ftlfm.ifaze.net/ listeners were peppering the chatroom with remarks on how much they were loving it and that they were going to purchase their EP’s asap. The man with the infectious,husky voice is Marcus Mumford, a voice so full of emotion that it demands to be listened to but take nothing away from the rest of the band, banjo, drums, double bass, some piano and guitar all make up a folk/bluegrass band that are way way ahead of anything i’ve heard so far this year. Also meant to be a storming live act and I’m hoping they add more live dates to their currently sold out shows they have coming up soon in London. The London folk scene has been on the up in the last couple of years what with Laura Marling, Pete Molinari, Johhny Flynn and Noah and the whale leading the way and now step up Mumford and sons. As I’ve said in the past, I’m no great reviewer of albums and so I’m not going to review this EP, I leave that to the much better writers across the net who can describe how good this band are far more eloquently than I can but, I will always continue to put up on this blog music that I think people should be listening to and getting out and seeing live. I will say however that the songwriting here is absolutely superb but you seem to only discover that after a few listens as you are pre-occupied indulging yourself in their musical greatness. With such an emotive voice like Marcus’ I seriously cannot understand how anyone could dislike this band, perhaps no one will, it could be perfection!
Download their stuff here. Or buy their latest EP here. Enjoy.
Seriously people…run, don’t walk, and buy yourself this EP!
LOVE LOVE LOVE these guys…thanks Geordie for playing them on your radio show the other night. Been listening to them non-stop in my car on the way to work.
Great, great, great …. I’m stuck on “Lend Me Your Eyes” EP. I want everything all unreleased stuff, live stuff, who’s got it, come on send it over my way. Martin, I think I might just take a little trip out to London to see them.
Yeah, what Trini said!
I love “White Blank Page” and “Hold On To What You Believe”…whoa. Beautiful.
Laura, those two tracks are so far my favorites ! Thanks again Martin for pointing us to that unbelievable band… I’m just a bit dubitative on your short list of London Folk scene… Some well-kept secrets left in your dj library ?
Trini, join us on last.fm, so you could check some related artists…One of this band will soon be playing live with those Mumford & sons. They have an ep planned to be released on February 2009 and they really deserved your ears !
I too prefer the first EP but to be honest love all their work so far. The reason I put up Little lion man was because that’s from their latest EP and because both EP’s have only 4 tracks each it would be taking the piss to offer one from each. ‘Sister’ is a free download from their myspace so thought it would be ok to post here too.
Glad you’s enjoy these folks, can’t wait for them to release a full album.
does anybody have a clue about how to buy their EPs in the states? I see they have a some for sale on rawrip, but that site is glitchy.
About to catch their show at sxsw. Thanks for the review providing some context.