Ireland Folk Magazine and News
Album review: Ungrateful Women by Dark and Twisties
Dark and Twisties are a contemporary female fronted folk band hailing from Swansea. Their debut album ‘Ungrateful Women’ will be released on 19th December and is a powerful and evocative first album filled with engaging storytelling and emotive harmonies.
The instrumentation of the album is carefully selected throughout to suit the needs of each track and gives the album some excellent variety. Quintessential folk instruments such as fiddle, banjo, guitar and mandolin set the backdrop for lush female vocal harmonies to take the lead, and the introduction of instruments such as the harp and harmonium give added depth and texture to the arrangements.
Oh! Johanna is the stand out track of the album with its ethereal cascading piano riff setting the tone which is then echoed by the violin. The steady drum groove acts like sonic glue, locking the track together and the soaring vocal harmonies towards the end of the track lift the album somewhere fresh and serene.
Overall, a promising first album with well-written original material that draws on traditional folk while moving confidently in a direction they can truly call their own — one defined as much by their distinctive musical voice as by their personal artistic vision, evident in the elegant interplay of words, music, and visuals in Grace and Dignity and its cinematic video. I look forward to hearing more from these musicians as they continue to develop and refine their sound and vision together.
Ungrateful Women is available for pre-order on Bandcamp (Vinyl, CD and Digital) ahead of its release on December 19th!
Pre-order now!
‘A CHEMISTRY THAT IS PALPABLE AND LUMINOUS’ ADAM WALTON. BBC RADIO WALES.
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