EP Review by Mark Bayross
Clayhill are the trio of Ted Barnes, Ali Friend and singer Gavin Clark and CUBAN GREEN is a six-track mini-album that serves as a taster for their forthcoming debut full-length.
Acoustic guitars, strings and shuffling beats wrap Clark’s slightly fragile but engaging voice in a warm glow of otherworldliness. From the attention-grabbing opener FIGURE OF EIGHT onwards there’s a desire to delve further into this magical sound, and certainly HOUR GLASS is eerily effective, evoking a mood somewhere between mid-period Talk Talk and Brendan Perry’s solo efforts.
GRASSCUTTER reminded me a bit of Neil Diamond, which I’m sure wasn’t intentional, but the haunting KIND OF MAN, just a sparse guitar and the voice of a broken man, and the Afghan Whigs-sounding SO FAR OUT more than make up for this.
The album may need to add some variety, but this is an interesting introduction and Clayhill are bound to win hearts with their forlorn sound.
