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Product details
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Track Listings
| 1. The Man Behind The Rhododendron |
| 2. Benjamin Bowmaneer |
| 3. Forget-me-not |
| 4. Kiss V |
| 5. Hoax And Benison |
| 6. Honey In The Rock |
| 7. No 32 |
| 8. Lullaby For The Beleaguered |
Product Description
**** The Times
"Folly is very English, very unusual and proof that if you want to make art, you just have to ignore debilitating forces and get on with it."
CD Description
Who is the man behind the rhododendron? What is a ‘benison’? Where did idealism ever get us, anyway? Mary Hampton’s second album FOLLY is here. 4 stars in Uncut & Shindig & 3 in Songlines 4 star review in the FT, a lead, 4 star review in Q, Colin Irwin wrote a nice review in the latest fRoots (a feature on Mary follows Reviews. Reviews on Wears the Trousers' and 'Electric Ghost' and a few other online sites are expected shortly. Radio 3's Late Junction love the album and will be playing from it. Mark Riley's BBC 6 Music have lined up a session with Mary in early October. Hailed as one of the true originals of the ‘new’ folk scene. She sings, plays guitar and piano and writes in a room in Brighton overlooking the sea. Her 2nd album is once again very largely self-penned but this time concerned with the relationship between idealism and folly Mary has toured and performed with a diverse array of artists over the past few years, from Eliza Carthy to Imitation Electric Piano (with members of Stereolab). She has supported St. Etienne and British Sea Power in Brighton, Bellowhead at London's Scala and Alisdair Roberts on a national tour. In 2007 she played for the 1000th anniversary of Oxford (on a bandstand inside a French fire installation), for the 75th anniversary of Cecil Sharp House (home of English Folk Dance & Song Society) and in the exquisite setting of End of the Road Festival. As well as solo dates in 2008 Mary played The Green Man Festival and toured the UK with singer/songwriter, Adem. In June 2009 she toured the UK alongside acclaimed American singer Diane Cluck. "You can fish around for reference points - Incredible String Band, Lal Waterson, Kate Bush, Melanie and Anne Briggs all might qualify - but this is wondrously individual " - Mojo **** Also available NAVIGATOR15 'My Mother's Children'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
The vocal is quintessentially 'folk' without question: soaring at times, piercing, falsetto-fine, haunting often, traditional and then quirky. The quirkiness is perhaps more in the unusual instrumentation at times - with occasional ambient/random sounds - and the use of recorder and the humming moan of harmonium. This adds to the haunting sounds too. The strings of her backing band Cotillion are either soft in the background as in 'Lullaby for the Beleaguered' with its rolling and at times complex but beautiful harmonies [waves lapping in the background too], or chamber fresh in 'Kiss V' where a discordant guitar-pluck unsettles throughout. I like these additional dissonant sounds within the mix. It unsettles but also prevents the songs and singing from becoming folk-twee. A song like 'Forget-Me-Not' with its monotone harmonium, sharp recorders, brooding very occasional bass and echoing harmonies really does disturb delightfully. A genuinely interesting collection.
Format:Audio CD
There are many warbling female singer-songwriters out there but this one is the real deal. Mary Hampton is capable of scaring as well as soothing. She has emotional range and the songs reveal themselves like curious creatures emerging from the deep.
If you think Folk music is about mannerisms and finger-in-ear quaintness then look elsewhere. If you beleive that music should do more than merely entertain then Mary's your gal. She can put you in touch with the mystic and can make you believe in the unseen. Buy Folly now, I urge you. It is not folly at all.
If you think Folk music is about mannerisms and finger-in-ear quaintness then look elsewhere. If you beleive that music should do more than merely entertain then Mary's your gal. She can put you in touch with the mystic and can make you believe in the unseen. Buy Folly now, I urge you. It is not folly at all.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Mary Hampton is a singer/songwriter who lives by the seaside in Brighton.
Broadly speaking we might think of her music as "folk" but she brings
something idiosyncratic and quirky into play in the eight songs which
make up her new album 'Folly'. Listening to it is a bit like opening a
buried book of old photographs in a bric a brac shop which has eluded
attention for over half a century or more. Blow off the dust, open the
covers and there inside we encounter pictures of faces and places which,
in the absence of any historical or biographical information, we are
left to construct our own stories. The effort is more than worthwhile.
Ms Hampton's voice is both sweet and sour. A delicate but expressive
instrument which inhabits her material like ghost. In a the dirge-like
song 'Forget-Me-Not', for example, she sounds positively spooky! A second,
half-heard, vocal follows the central melody like a shadow, weaving in
and out of the desolate drone and whistles like a widow in her dark weeds.
Elsewhere, unaccountable and unexplained sonic intrusions punctuate the
performances to tug at our hair and prick our skin like bitter and twisted
night birds ('Benjamin Bowmaneer') and skittering bats ('Kiss V') but I must
not give you the impression that it's all Gothic gloom and doom. Opening
track 'The Man Behind The Rhododendron' delivers a slinky, slow tango in
which one might almost imagine Ms Hampton dancing barefoot on the rain-
soaked floor of a village bandstand! A whimsical tune to entertain herself.
Final track 'Lullaby For The Beleaguered', however, invites us back into
the stark, grey uncertain landscape in which she seems most fully at home.
(The mp3 edition ends on a lighter note with a live and sprightly rendition of
'Pear Tree' which displays the traditional full bloom of Ms Hampton's heart).
An album to while away the long winter evening hours.
Recommended.
Broadly speaking we might think of her music as "folk" but she brings
something idiosyncratic and quirky into play in the eight songs which
make up her new album 'Folly'. Listening to it is a bit like opening a
buried book of old photographs in a bric a brac shop which has eluded
attention for over half a century or more. Blow off the dust, open the
covers and there inside we encounter pictures of faces and places which,
in the absence of any historical or biographical information, we are
left to construct our own stories. The effort is more than worthwhile.
Ms Hampton's voice is both sweet and sour. A delicate but expressive
instrument which inhabits her material like ghost. In a the dirge-like
song 'Forget-Me-Not', for example, she sounds positively spooky! A second,
half-heard, vocal follows the central melody like a shadow, weaving in
and out of the desolate drone and whistles like a widow in her dark weeds.
Elsewhere, unaccountable and unexplained sonic intrusions punctuate the
performances to tug at our hair and prick our skin like bitter and twisted
night birds ('Benjamin Bowmaneer') and skittering bats ('Kiss V') but I must
not give you the impression that it's all Gothic gloom and doom. Opening
track 'The Man Behind The Rhododendron' delivers a slinky, slow tango in
which one might almost imagine Ms Hampton dancing barefoot on the rain-
soaked floor of a village bandstand! A whimsical tune to entertain herself.
Final track 'Lullaby For The Beleaguered', however, invites us back into
the stark, grey uncertain landscape in which she seems most fully at home.
(The mp3 edition ends on a lighter note with a live and sprightly rendition of
'Pear Tree' which displays the traditional full bloom of Ms Hampton's heart).
An album to while away the long winter evening hours.
Recommended.
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