Wednesday 6 February 2013

Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition - #3 Arthur Rigby & The Baskervylles

When judging music, either for a specific purpose such as the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition, whether to feature on this blog or in a more general sense such as ‘do I like it and will I listen to this again?’ one of the difficulties is, if I don’t like it, how long is it before I switch off / press stop and move on to the next thing? In a wireless world where access to so much music is so easy, the temptation is to fast forward onto something else before we’ve even given something a chance.

If we treated real life human beings in this way we’d probably miss out on some really important relationships in our lives. How often do you hear of two people who initially find no particular attraction to each other, but gradually grow as friends and sometimes even became lovers? It happens. Because attraction isn’t just about initial impressions, but longer term layers. Too much initial buzz can lead to raised expectations that can't be maintained in the long term. Just like music.

It’s why we’re glad that after the first few seconds of this song we didn’t press stop and persevered. For what starts out as a fairly hum-drum piece of acoustic folk pop expands into something far more expansive and glorious. Taken from their EP Tales From Pegasus Wood, One Stormy Night by Arthur Rigby & The Baskervylles is positively life affirming; the sound of stars exploding whilst The Divine Comedy bash drums, blow brass and design all sorts of musical towers that grow upwards. Press play and make sure you listen to the whole song. That's all the way through OK?

*Get out of jail card: Once again, as with all this series of posts, just because a band is featured here does not necessarily mean they will be one of our three nominations for the Glastonbury Emerging Talent completion longlist. They are just one of a number that we are currently enjoying and posting this week. Our final choices will be revealed on the official Glastonbury website on March 8th.

Arthur Rigby & The Baskervylles - One Stormy Night


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