Brevity can be a virtue during first impressions, and while Field Music get three tracks put down on five-and-a-half-minutes’ worth of plastic it’s enough time to get their pastoral-pop message across.
Recently released by Memphis Industries (the place that J Xaverre, Go! Team and any number of folktronic wonders call ‘home’), if the aptly titled ‘Shorter Shorter’ were handed to me on a dusty bit of vinyl in a dog-eared sleeve like it had been stored for years in Fairport Convention’s attic then I wouldn’t see it as unfitting. Starting with a high-pitched a cappella, incorporating folk-tinged string accompaniment and boasting a guitar solo that could’ve made Pink Floyd more accessible, it’s refreshing in both it’s subtle, breezy nature and its briefness. The B-sides are much warmer in tone, though, helped by the piano line in ‘Trying To Sit Out’ and the orchestral flourishes in ‘Breakfast Song’. Overall Field Music come across as both medieval minstrels and modern-day mavericks, so it’s no surprise that these songs are rather lush. Check.
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8Thomas Blatchford's Score