Seamus Fogarty: The Curious Hand (Domino Records)
Left field Irish troubadour Seamus Fogarty released his 2015 debut album, God Damn You Mountain, on revered Fife independent label Fence Records, putting him in the company of acts like King Creosote, James Yorkston and Pictish Trail. Although for this second album he has now followed Yorkston to Domino Records, you sense that he remains a Fence-er at heart. He certainly still fits the basic mould, turning out whimsical, folk-inspired songs dripping with electronic embellishments and sonic interruptions in the form of loops, found sound and spoken word extracts – such as on the title track, where an elderly Irish man talks about his childhood, and emigration to New York; or Tommy The Cat, which includes audio of a man taking part in a shouting competition in the west of Ireland. Yes, really. Fogarty has even enlisted an old Fence label mate, Bristolian singer-songwriter Rozi Plain, for backing vocal duties, on country-tinged closing track Number 1. Carlow Town, with its wheezing drones and spacey synthesisers, is like one of those extended jams the Beta Band excelled at, while on Christmas Time On Jupiter Fogarty strays more into John Martyn territory. Elsewhere he indulges his experimental side (on the instrumental St John's Square) but leavens that with hook-laden story-songs such as Mexico and Short Ballad For A Long Man. An under-stated gem of an album.
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