How many times have you - and I - heard somebody claim to have found some previously unheard gem or classic piece of life-changing music?
So have I. However, with regard to Bob carpenter's early 70's classic Silent Passage this just might be the one. Having spent six months trying to get hold of a copy, following Midlakes' excellent Late Night Tales CD last year, it finally arrived on import from Japan as I returned home from work on Friday knackered and in need of some refreshment. So having run a hot bath and made tea I put on the CD and slowly sank beneath the waves of Bob Carpenter's amazing singing and songwriting. As with all music you think of as original and unique it really is hard to liken this with anything I've ever heard before - part folk for sure, but there is so much depth and profundity going on in here that 'folk' really doesn't seem to do it justice. Songs like Before My Time, First Light, Down Along The Border, Gyspy Boy and of course, Silent Passage seem to have been written by some disembodied sage of the forest, there is a windyness and a wildness about them, part Len Cohen, part Nick Drake, that buffets you and carries you away into the night all undone and starry eyed. Please buy this album this year, you WILL love it!
