Stornoway
ULU, London
20/05/2010

Tonight, Oxford indie-folksters Stornoway arrive in London at the end of a tour which has seen them travel “home” for the first time. “We did our first show in Stornoway on this tour” lead singer Brian Briggs tells us, and leaves it at that. Rude awakening? Emotional rollercoaster? Sorry, dunno. Thankfully, Stornoway’s music is more interesting than their travelogues.

Taking to the stage beneath a hand-painted moustachioed moon, there’s more than a touch of the sweet and innocent about them. The Belle And Sebastian resemblance is not just in Briggs’ voice, although Stornoway are not as playful as the Scots, and their ability to mix up plaintive tunes and hoedown-like energy brings to mind bands like The Low Anthem. It’s a sound without tricks or gimmicks, somehow of-the-land and honest thanks to Briggs’ acoustic guitar being largely the only high-end instrument in support of his voice. Bass, keyboards and drums are occasionally joined by some violin and trumpet from part-time band members Rahul Satija and brother Adam Briggs, but this is the exception (so much so in fact that we wonder if it’s a job centre initiative rather than an artistic choice).

For an encore, Stornoway play (and we swear we’re not making this up) that famous folk-indie classic, ‘Ride On Time’ by Black Box.  It is slow and sinister and a pretty nice little job, like Mark Lanegan covering Snap’s ‘Rhythm Is A Dancer’ (Mark, if you’re reading this….).  The band are genuine enough to be worth some attention, but their real stand out is a song called ‘On The Rocks’, which is more atmospheric and less typically structured; carrying on in this vein could make for a much more interesting musical future…

Martin Cordiner