Following our previous track by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, new songs from the Scottish-formed folk band who collaborated with him on the 2012 album The Marble Downs, but two here from their new LP Dungeness. Formed by drummer Alex Neilson, who writes most of the songs, is based in Glasgow but grew up in Leeds, Trembling Bells have strong echoes of 60s and 70s folk and psychedelic bands such as Fairport Convention, The Incredible String Band and Trees, but have their own, distinctive style. Dungeness, their sixth album, is inspired by the stark, end of the world, driftwood landscape of that Kent area, but many of their songs have a strong sense of place, such as older songs, Goathland, which is based around Yorkshire's Robin Hood Bay, and here, of course, Govan, the historically poor area of Glasgow, but with a song inspired by the Flemish Expressionist James Ensor’s painting Christ’s Entry Into Brussels. On I'm Coming, there are even hints of contemporary politics with the line, “There’s a price to be paid for these abuses of power”. Their themes also centre upon many topics from death, loneliness, and spiritual salvation, and the music has a sense of grandiose apocalypse, with free-forming prog and folk melodies framed in the voice of lead vocalist Lavinia Blackwell, making their music timelessly hover beyond anything in vogue.
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