Nightshift Review

Got the following review in Oxford's long-running music zine, Nightshift.

Last time Telling the Bees sent us an album to
review, they were thoughtful enough to enclose a
false beard for us to wear while listening, worried
that they might be too beardy for us. Not that
they should have been overly concerned. We’ve
long been enthralled by Oxfordshire’s rich folk
music scene, particularly those acts, like Telling
The Bees and Sharron Kraus, who come steeped
in the earthy pagan traditions of English folk
with its gothic storytelling and darkly
psychedelic edge.
Telling The Bees are made up of four local folk
scene stalwarts: singer and multi-instrumentalist
Andy Letcher, bassist and guitarist Colin
Fletcher and string players Jane Griffiths and
Josie Webber. They take their band name from
the ancient custom of telling the family beehive
of any notable goings-on lest they get upset and
fly away and, as you’d expect, they’re in that
solid tradition of native folk that has passed
from minstrels into the modern age via Fairport
Convention and more recently singers such as
Seth Lakeman and Kris Drever. In fact one of
‘An English Arcanum”s highlights, the rousing
‘Otmoor Forever’, echoes Drever’s
interpretation of Boo Herwerdine’s ‘Harvest
Gypsies’, with its tale of displaced working men.
Equally, there is a tendency to romanticise a
transient lifestyle, as on the sorrowful love
ballad that is ‘Playing At Gypsies’, but while
some might balk at the rustic storytelling style,
Letcher’s warm, rich voice is as welcoming and
captivating as a roaring hearth in a country inn.
Here he’s superbly backed up by Griffiths’ and
Webber’s sumptuous string arrangements which,
while playing safer than they did on the band’s
debut, ‘Untie The Wind’, add texture and
atmosphere to the songs. Never more so than on
this album’s high point, the closing ‘Apple’,
where they circle ominously round an haunting
lament that would sit well on the best of
Fairport’s catalogue.
Amid the songs there are a handful of
instrumental tracks here to fill out the album,
played on border pipes or fiddle and guitar and
given weight by Webber’s harsh cello thrum, and
it’s an album that rewards repeated visits, much
like a favoured country inn. Sup long and
heartily, good friends.

Dale Kattack

Sideways through Sound

Hello Peeps,

The new album is going to featured on the ever wonderful Sideways Through Sound radio show, broadcast in Australia. Here's the details:

"You will be on the Sideways Through Sound radio show next week, that’s Wednesday 4th November, so shout it from the rooftops!! Tell your friends, post it on your website or MySpace site, Facebook, Twitter, blog it, text it... etc etc etc...



You can listen at 107.3FM (in Sydney) or stream at: www.2ser.com/stream, at 9PM (21:00) hours, Sydney, Australia time.



The show will also be available as a free download to you after transmission only from the Sideways Through Sound website."

The New Album!

We're happy to announce that the new album is finished and will be released on November 26th (available from our website, CD Baby, and the usual download outlets). It's called An English Arcanum and contains eleven original track of darkly crafted folk. We're pretty chuffed with it, I have to say.

It comes packaged with some stunning artwork by the wonderful Rima Staines, and to whet your appetite, here's the front cover. We'll keep you posted about gigs etc, though as you know, we're lying low while Josie adjusts to being a mother!

More soon,

Andy xxx

Rima

We thought you also might like to know that Rima is on board to do the artwork for the next album. Even now her pencils are twitching and ideas starting to gel...

Oh, you want to know what the album will be called? Well you'll just have to wait now, won't you...

Recording!

We're back in the recording studio this week, this time decamped to a friend's house in Oxford while they are on their hols. We can announce that there will be 11 tracks on the album - so far we've recorded ten of them, we're doing the last today. Then there's overdubs, mixing and mastering - all of which take an age but are the fun bit, without the tension and release of getting a good take. But the process has gone really well and we're sure you'll like the results. So here, to tantalise you, is a screen dump of one of the songs - can you work out how it will sound...?


BTW - the DAW software we use is called Ardour. You won't read about it in the music tech mags because it is open source which means it is entirely FREE - it is supported by Mac OSX and Linux. It does everything you'd expect of Pro Tools, Logic etc, and latest version supports MIDI and VST. And Colin is now a listed developer too. How cool is that?

Exmoor and beyond

We played a cracking gig this week at a new acoustic night here in Oxford, called the Potting Shed. Watch out for more stuff happening there - it's an intimate venue with great acoustics.

Meanwhile we're off to Exmoor again to start work on the next album. Yup, that's right, we're getting it together in the country with a car-load of food, instruments, recording tat and a dog (essential, we think, to the recording process). Untie the Wind took nine months from start to finish but we're hoping that this will be a bit quicker. We'll try and keep you updated on our progress but we may not have internet connection down there. Watch this space!