Blue John - Sundialer (Self Release) [Folk Rock]
- The Slow Music Movement
- 3 minutes ago
- 2 min read
There's not a lot to be said about Blue John, mainly because they're not giving much away with regards to personal details and don't put any musical credits or liner notes on their releases, and that's alright i guess, although you could perhaps play detective with their Instagram feed. What is known though is that they're a five piece from Sheffield who, by the looks of their Bandcamp photo, consist of two brothers + two beardy brothers and a fair maiden from the north of England, who have been releasing a steady stream of cultured, pleasantly stoned folk rock for the last four years.
They've also just released a new album, and it's well worth a listen. Forget pleasantly microdosed for the album's intro, "Rising", it appears someone misjudged the dosage, and the trio embark on a low gravity kosmische voyage to realms far away from our own - guitars and synthesisers melting into each other to create the perfect psychedelic ambient album opener. Once the excess shroomage has largely worn off, the band pull it together and adopt more familiar hazy folk rock forms in the good natured, easy riding strains of "Sundialer", which pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the album.
Next up is, "Memento" which harks back to lightly stoned, dub tickled pop with a subtle hint of Madchester at its mellowest. There's actually a lot of harking back during the album's course and with today's music scene awash with AI slop and music by numbers generic fare I'm certainly not complaining that five, obviously accomplished musicians, are looking back to brighter musical days and showing off their hard won musical chops.
Next up, "Scarlet" strips things back to whistle infused, folky indie-pop singer songwriter basics, a welcome breather before what I guess is a live show favourite, "Half Moon", its propulsive uptempo drums hurling the still good natured vocals and tune through the speakers at a rate of knots. "Ephemera" sees the crew return the energy levels back to an easier, indie flirting, folk trot before they sneak to the back of the studio to smoke a sneaky one and get in the zone for the lysergic folk rock flight of fancy, "Chances" which is a five minute trip down outsider folk rock memory lane, a fine album farewell, and another suggestion that these local heroes deserve a bit of wider attention.
Playlist Companion
Find Blue John in the Slow Psyche Playlist.