Illumine

Back in April, I shared 'Sleepwalking', an early first taster from the debut Low Chimes LP (here). The tune seemed to go down rather well, so I thought I'd give all and sundry a heads up that the album has at last hit the streets and is available to order here. I'm chuffed to report that 'Illumine' is well worth the long wait, strong in composition, performance and production.

Judging by some of the band's recent social media postings, new material is apparently already in the works. Low Chimes (then still trading as Hot Feet) were outstanding when I saw them perform in a tiny Norwich basement back in 2013 and I really do hope they head out to my neck of the woods again before they retreat into the studio to prepare LP number two.

Here's 'Sulphur Silk', my current favourite cut on 'Illumine', plus, as a bonus, a very nice live performance of 'Electric Bloom'.

Low Chimes

On January 1st 2013, in my first post of that year, I raved about Hot Feet, a band I'd then only recently discovered and featured the wonderful title track from their debut EP, 'Wood House' (it still sounds as sublime as ever, check it out here). The EP was released in November 2012 and was eventually followed by a further EP, 'Mist is Dust', in October 2014. After that, it all went a bit quiet. The Hot Feet moniker was quietly dropped and a new one, Low Chimes, was adopted. Then, last year, crowdfunding feelers were put out among the faithful on the band's mailing list, to gather resources for a debut full length LP. I'd been so impressed with the EP's and the concert I'd seen Hot Feet perform in 2013 that I gladly shelled out a few quid to help them along the way. The LP, 'Illumine', finally sees the light of day in the Autumn, but the first single, 'Sleepwalking' arrived a couple of weeks ago and this, along with their recent superb 6Music session (here) has already convinced me that it was money well spent.

Hot Feet

Hot Feet announced their presence to the world in November via a five track EP, written in Sweden, recorded in Scotland and produced by Laura Marling cohort Pete Roe. This is the quite wonderful title track of that EP, 'Wood House', which, since I stumbled upon it a couple of weeks ago, has had me re-configuring my list of favourite tunes from 2012 to make way for it's belated inclusion.

Check-out/buy the whole EP here.