Reviewed by Ian Hayter

Ben Sunderland, Callum Bateman, Naomi Black and James Moir (the son of Kingsway's Les Moir) met up in 2010 and have spent a year honing their act and touring the length and breadth of Britain, appearing at NME Festivals and supporting the likes of Athlete. Now, with the expert help of producer David Lynch (Duke Special, Newton Faulkner) the Edinburgh-based band have laid down five tracks of blissfully melodic folk pop which bear comparison with anything else you're likely to hear today. The immediate comparisons are to Mumford & Sons (when I was listening to this two other people passed through the room and asked if it was the Mumfords), but there's actually enough originality here to mark them off from any other band. The set begins with "Wedding Song", which really sets out their stall lyrically and musically. The plangent violin of Rev Nick adds to the mix and, joined by Luke Renshaw on electric guitar for "Magic Land" they demonstrate the power of their writing and performance. The following "Glory" is a wonderful anthemic track which lifts the spirits and cheers the soul and the closers are "Home" and "You Breathe" which maintain the momentum and the quality to complete a wonderful set of highly accomplished songs. This is a great debut and, as the band state on their website, "we've barely started - there are many places we haven't seen, many notes we've yet to sing. . ." Let's hope we hear a lot more of those as yet unsung notes before too long.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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