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Released 11th July 2011

Laura J Martin already feels like part of the extended Static Caravan family, having shared a stage with Hannah Peel. The Static Brothers are proud to be releasing this single which brings together two tasty tracks of wonderfully eccentric folk-driven wonkiness.

Based in Liverpool, Laura mines the strange, darker underbelly of folk and has recorded sessions for Marc Riley and Rob Da Bank. On stage, Laura flits effortlessly between flute, mandolin and xylophone, as well as using looped vocals and instruments to great effect. There’s an otherworldliness to her music which made her an ideal choice to support the likes of Misty’s Big Adventure, Scout Niblett and Buck 65, and an upcoming tour supporting Jonny proves she’s got the songwriting chops to impress Norman Blake and Euros Childs.

‘Kiss By Good Night’ is a delicious slice of film noir-informed folk, as if Tom Waits and Jethro Tull had teamed up to record the soundtrack to a Bogart and Bacall movie, or perhaps the score for a gritty HBO crime drama. Popping with unsettling crackles and hisses, junkyard percussion and handclaps underpin Laura’s floating vocal and its counterpoint rhyme from Buck 65, their contrasting styles recalling Isobel Campbell’s collaborations with Mark Lanegan. It’s like the romantic sub-plot of a pulpy novella set in dark alleyways, speakeasies and saloons, but in a makeshift world where prog and British folk strains are part of the environment; albeit one where Ian Anderson is getting eyeballed by a gang of shady-looking suits packing heat.

The creeping nocturnalia of ‘Spy’ begins like Mezzanine-era Massive Attack’s claustrophobic intensity, with brooding rhythms and stabbing flute melody, not to mention talk of “punctured flesh” and untold layers of intrigue, before going in another direction entirely with Martin’s beguiling vocal reminiscent of Bjork and Kate Bush. With an epic, richly textured feel which wouldn’t be out of place in David Arnold’s Bond scores, or Johnny Harris ‘Movements’ album, bursts of guitar add a suitably off-kilter, psychedelic feel and the insistent, almost tribal rhythm is acutely arresting alongside her Bonnie Dobson-like vocal.

REVIEWS

"The fact that about 4 people have come over while it's been playing to ask what it was is probably a good sign amongst the mountains of blandness that seem to pass for music these days" - Norman Records

"to its alluring alchemy the dimpling floral flute lilts trace a heady intoxicating haze that leaves you dizzily enrapt in its crooked kooky folk folly to imagine a youthfully precocious Ms Bush re-tracing her ‘army dreamers’ steps in the company of the Winston Giles Orchestra" - Losing Today

"The latest Static Caravan release. It's Kate Bush backed by a solo Les Baxter in a late night speakeasy after a glass and a half of full cream absynthe - it's wonderfully pretty and pretty wonderful. The b-side features Buck 65 on vocals and Neil Innes on double bass. No, seriously, that's what it says." - 45cat.com