To celebrate the arrival of the summer festival season, we’re offering you a playlist sampling the sounds of one of our favourite boutique events, Lunar Festival. What’s more, we’re giving you a chance to win a pair of tickets. To enter all you have to do is follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook. Then, retweet the competition tweets or share our Facebook competition posts. If you have already followed or liked, simply retweet or share and you will be in with a chance.
Allah Las – ‘Tell Me (What’s On Your Mind)‘
Their songwriting quality and effortless psych pop melodies make them the perfect soundtrack to hazy summer days. Reminiscent of the Zombies and Pink Floyd, Allah Las‘ second album Worship The Sun came out last year to a glorious press reception. Wistful jangle pop replete with classicism and attention to detail distancing it from the mere pastiche.
Daisy Vaughan – ‘Melancholy Morning‘
The Suffolk-based teen isn’t very forthcoming when it comes to information or talking about herself, so it’s a good thing her music speaks for itself. Gorgeous folk guitar pickings run alongside rich, warm vocals that belie her years. Daisy Vaughan is yet more proof that simple really does make more impact.
The Drink – ‘Microsleep‘
They sound like Stealing Sheep jamming with Stereolab and Deerhoof, and describe themselves as ‘odd dark folk pop’ and their two handmade EPs caused quite a stir in Rough Trade shops. Dearbhla Minogue’s layered, doe-eyed voice set against the disarming percussive shifts in mood and tempo reveal a band with a vast range of sonic trinkets and vocals that can beguile the hardest of hearts.
Jane Weaver – ‘Don’t Take My Soul‘
Now six albums into her solo career, Liverpool’s Jane Weaver has followed a musical trajectory that has led her from more conventional folk music/singer-songwriter origins into something that is altogether more collaborative, challenging, psychedelic and experimental.
Midnight Bonfires – ‘Exhale‘
Birmingham’s Midnight Bonfires make some of the most exciting alternative folk music yet. It’s folk ‘all right’, but there’s also a rock and a pop edge there too. The vocals are what’s really intriguing about Midnight Bonfires, though – a high energy falsetto that is rarely heard or seen, nor done so well.
Plank – ‘Aphidelity’
Mancunian cult heroes Plank are a true esoteric oddity. Last year’s arthropod-inspired LP Hivemand created curious and complex forms of musical habitats, spanning an awesome Krautrock-powered sonic voyage from cosmic Euro disco to brooding post-rock and epic glistening synth bliss. Smart, beautiful and genuinely disturbing.
Public Service Broadcasting – ‘Go!’
SE London’s electronic sample archivists return with a new LP based around the story of US-Russia cold war space race. As good as they sound, Public Service Broadcasting is definitely a visual experience fortified by historic film footage and themed stage sets. Musically, the second album is a step up, introducing funk, afrobeat, ethereal vocals and swelling strings to their Krautrock-led sonic palette. Listen and learn!
Sylvan Esso – ‘Dreamy Bruises’
Sylvan Esso is a creation of folk singer Amelia Meath and electronic producer Nick Sanborn from Durham, North Carolina. Electro-pop does scant justice to the duo’s idiosyncratic and organic sound. Resonating sultry charm and feel-good warm daze Sylvan Esso is both understated and utterly captivating. A perfect summer festival tonic.
Tinariwen – ‘Toumast Tincha‘
African music legends Tinariwen is the beating heart of the blues, uncovering it and bringing it back to its original roots. Formed in the Saharan region of northern Mali in 1979 by Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, the group’s unique haunting desert blues is driven by a guitar style known as ‘assouf’ featuring a one-string fiddle ‘imzad’, ‘tende’ drum and a lute known as the ‘teherdent’.
Wilko Johnson – ‘All Through The City’
Advised in January 2013 that he had less than a year to live, this remarkable man has since survived a major operation to treat his pancreatic cancer. Rejoice in this miracle on Saturday night at Lunar festival as the former Dr Feelgood guitar hero performs material from a career that now stretches back five decades.
The competition closes at midday Tuesday 7th April 2015. The winner will be picked at random and notified via Facebook or Twitter within 24 hours of the competition closure date.
Terms and conditions can be found here.
Lunar Festival will run from 5th – 7th June.
Ticket and full line up information can be found here.
