Heartcore, by Wildbirds & Peacedrums (CD on Leaf)

A Norman Records recommendation (9th May 2008)

Description:	CD on Leaf	UK ORDERS OVER £50 SHIP FREE!
Format:	CD
Label:	Leaf
Price:	£9.29
Catalogue number:	BAY61CD
Availability:	despatched in 1 working day

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What we say

Rating: ecstatic This record left our BRIAN D feeling ecstatic.

Well it's been out low key style before has this album i'm clutching in my lobsteresque pincer. But rightfully so, Sweden's Wildbirds and Peacedrums have their strange and wilfully unhinged 'Heartcore' album reissued by Leaf for the widest possible audience. The lady on vocals is a right mentalist, I can tell thee. She's possesed by some real voodoo spirits, like she's attempting a tribal raindance, whooping it up in a well abstract stylee whilst the (beautifully recorded) drums tumble & rumble around her like a freeform avalanche. Then there's a tender downtempo tune where she showcases her slightly wonky lilting voice, full of earthy soul. & wonder. I can't really compare this bizarre & compelling record to anything except maybe early Scout Niblett & the first Leila album in it's experimental scope & organic percussive nature. Also Cocorosie and Bjork come to mind when absorbing some of the remarkable vocal gymnastics but honestly, this fucker is out there on it's own. Minimal, sensual & beguiling, there's some real magic afoot here, twinkly twilit interludes amongst some serious improvised pagan rhythms & stargazing mountain folk. I feel cleansed after listening to these sounds because a great deal is merely rudimentary percussion & Mariam Wallentin's swooping, soaring tones. Taken as a whole, it's got a real sense of the new, but this duo's utterly heartfelt attitude is steeped both in the purity of traditional music & the wild abandon of the avant garde, resulting in quite wonderful, special tunes. A spiritual & unique work, I can't recommend it highly enough! Looks like that's our AOTW

What the label says:

Wildbirds & Peacedrums are charismatic singer Mariam Wallentin and drummer Andreas Werliin. Together the Swedish duo have forged an extraordinary hybrid of spiritual pop, primal blues and ecstatic soul music.
Seesawing between pagan rhythms and sparse, bewitching ballads, their self-produced debut is a declaration of intent: immediate, exhilarating, and just plain new.
Mariam’s uninhibited, skin-prickling vocal expressions invoke vintage blues performers like Bessie Smith through to the spookily evocative folk singing of Mary Margaret O’Hara. With a fiery passion all her own that encompasses moods from the heavy spiritual lament of ’I Can’t Tell in his Eyes’ to the raw gospel exclamation of ’Bird’ with just pulsing bass drums accompanying Mariam’s ululations, to the rock & roll handclaps, crash, bang and wallop crescendo of ’Doubt/Hope’, she is a mercurial talent with a breathtaking emotional depth.
After hand-sewing fabric covers for two limited edition CDRs, the duo recorded their debut album Heartcore in Gothenberg in the summer of 2006.

Tracklist:1. Pony 2. The Way Things Go 3. Bird 4. I Can’t Tell In His Eyes 5. Doubt/Hope 6. A Story From A Chair 7. The Battle In Water 8. The Ones That Should Save Me Get Me Down 9. Lost Love 10. The Window 11. Nakina 12. We Hold Each Other Song

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Heartcore by Wildbirds & Peacedrums (LP, £8.49)

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