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Its so easy to find yourself headlong in love and knee deep in the warming affectionate embrace of ’this is how I found you’ - not with standing the mere detail that this 9 track debut is only a mere 34 minutes in length - the sounds are so delicately unobtrusive and soft that they flutter by in an instant.
New York resident / musician Miwa has been steadily gathering acclaim these last few years, regular appearances throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan quietly wowing audiences with her strangely beguiling fuzzy faraway folk fancies, sadly we missed out on her debut full length ’forgetful ocean and other strange stories’ from 2005 though a quick peak at ’sad about Joe’ and ’Charlie Chaplin broke my heart’ suggest serious investigation is needed sooner rather than later.
Three years down the line along with ever present sticksman Brian Lackey (Sasha the porcelain cat and Polly her guitar - yep you read right) and having adeptly mastered the banjo, piano and mandolin, the pair now release the touchingly willowy ’this is how I found you’ - indelibly intimate and in some respects naive though irrefutably charming, Miwa’s head in the clouds daydreaming is given substance and existence and while by and large her delivery lends itself to - shall we say - a sense of flighty playfulness she can still at the drop of a hat crack the odd crushing gem - the emotion rushing barriers down ’Angel’s prayer’ proving the case in point as it tugs, tears and scratches resigned and rooted deep in loss.
Reference wise - agreed with the Patsy Cline comparisons, perhaps a demurring Cat Power (just tune into ‘pieces’) and certainly reminiscent of new talent on the block Kat Flint, Miwa courts with a swirling array of textures, moods and sound styles from the drifting Weimar musical hall meets surreal nocturnal fairground jazz flavoured blues of the haunting ‘Picnic’, the smoking prairie faux rock-a-billy feline strut of the prowling banjo laced ‘travelling man’ with its kicking back stripped down Stray Cats like dialects to the sultrily snaking frail Chris Isaacs like ‘Crazy over you’ with its ghostly summer’s night arpeggios.
All said and done if you were to dip into just one cut here then delight yourself in the utterly desirable cautiously shy eyed, sweetly centred lilt of the near perfect ’something ordinary’, all at once mercurial and oozing romance this babe is unquestionably touched and crafted with a classically turned lasting melodic ease, subtly 50’s references this intimate and touching gemstone achieves what most song writing these days appears to lack and therein forgotten - it gives a lot of itself, a frank open book love noted poetic cards on the table tingler arrestingly served with mellowing honey combed melodies and sealed with a personalised vocal - need we say more - quite breathless if you ask me. Essential.
www.adictiverecords.ca
www.miwagemini.com
www.rockparkrecords.com
Key tracks -
Something ordinary
Angel’s prayer
Crazy over you
MARK BARTON
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