If I said 'experimental folk' to you, would you run screaming? I suspect you would. I think possibly I would, too. So although that phrase is used on Candidate's website, I'm not going to describe them like that simply because they are much better than that sounds. You may have heard Candidate if you've watched Johnny Vegas sitcom Ideal, since their track Song Of The Oss served as it's closing theme. That's from their superb 2002 Wicker-Man-soundtrack-inspired album Nuada. As is the following song.
Candidate - Beautiful Birds mp3 (available for 7 days)
The Candidate website lists the band as Joel Morris, Alex Morris and Ian Painter, but they have acquired three fringe members (Alex Donohoe, Jason Hazeley (of Ben & Jason not-quite-fame) and Phil Morris) since the site was last updated. One of them isn't pictured above.
The thing about Candidate is that they have a tendency to just drift past for a while before you even notice them. Occasionally they're a little too subtle for their own good! It took me a good few months to get a handle on 2001's Tiger Flies, but once I got there, I was very glad I hadn't given up on it after the first listen.
Candidate - Hangman's Waltz mp3 (available for 7 days)
This year Candidate released their fifth album, Oxengate, which was well-liked, where it was noticed. You can stream four songs from various albums at Candidate's myspace page - (Going Back To) Amsterdam from Oxengate is my favourite of them.
Buy Candidate albums from play.com (I'd recommend starting with Nuada)
1 comment:
Very enjoyable stuff - cheers m'dear!
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