Review
Samantha Marais THE PEPPERMINT CONSPIRACY 4 Stars By far the best album of the week. Marais is a South African folkie whose trembly bell-like voice has been described, not unaptly, as combining the Innocence of Sixties Francoise Hardy with the depth of Sandy Denny and Kate Bush. The songs on her debut straddle both ends of folk, from marvellously authentic finger-in-the-ear trad to strange and wonderful nu weird . It s beguiling, melodic, imaginative, different and well worth a punt. --The Sunday Telegraph
Review
SAMANTHA MARAIS The Peppermint Conspiracy *** Lovingly recreated approximations of 1960s English folk whimsy Latest release from a label run by Simon Tong and Youth is by Marais, a young South African émigré who makes unnervingly good replications of 1960s English popfolk. In fact, the Sandy Denny/Vashti Bunyan-ish whimsy is reproduced so faithfully you could swear tracks like First Days Of June or Hourglass (with their hippy-dippy lyrics, harmonium drones and clumpy percussion) were 40-year-old Denny/Bunyan outtakes. The pastiche is enhanced by subtle psych flourishes and drone rock interludes. JOHN LEWIS --Uncut Jan 2008