Where I Want To Go For My Holidays: The Maladies of Bellafontaine

I know it sounds like an incredibly poncey thing to say, but my current latest love is a band and they don't have any records out. Yeah, yeah, yeah... my favourite band is unsigned man... you'd love 'em Yadda yadda yadda... but ear need The Maladies of Bellafontaine.

You're probably aware that, bubbling under the world's veneer of angular guitar and choruses, there's been something of a folk Renaissance going on for what seems like 5 years. Floppy fringed troubadours who can't find a drummer have been playing venues and leaving fans rapt and wondering why people talk so much during gigs. If you go to a folk gig, you'll see many daggers thrown.

However, some bands actually manage to make people shut up because their sound is more than just a stripped down something else. A sound that is meant to be that quiet and bewitching. Not some jerk playing indie unplugged.

The band making the best quiet racket on the planet currently is The Maladies of Bellafontaine. They're currently making me come up with all kinds of superlatives that I wouldn't wanna share with you for fear of embarrassing myself. Fact is, I reckon you'd love 'em.

Mixing that eerie sound probably found in just the reverb of Pentangle records, mixed with something that reminds me of Stereolab and Broadcast if they'd overdosed on Maximum Drowsy Cough Syrup. It's great. Through half-whispered tales of socks, biros, strings of sausages and Jungle Exotica played next-door, listening to their music can give you the impression you've walked into a Ouija board session as drawn by Quentin Blake.

Unlike most bands inspired by folk and psych, they've managed to remember two very important things. The first is that there's other music to dig. This lot are cribbing from Django Reinhardt and seemingly, The Langley Schools Project. They've also remembered that music is supposed to be catchy and fun. This is pop Jim, as you half-remember it from a daydream you once had.

Importantly, they look really cool too. Don't pretend shit like that doesn't matter to you. It does. When this ragtag ghost-ship creeps on stage, you'll stare like a bothersome fantasist.

So, yeah. If you ask me... "If you could go anywhere in the world for your holidays, where would you go?" the answer would be the sound of The Maladies of Bellafontaine.

Click here to listen to them in your living room or visit one of the places below to leave the house.

23 Jul Camden Monarch London
1 Aug Eckersly Mill Wigan
15 Aug The Raquet Club Liverpool
29 Aug Tudor Wigan

Comments

[Phil]

They are truly wonderful

[Calli Bradley]

It is with joy that I read your review. It is good to hear that their discovery is happening (slowly but surely). The Maladies are truly truly scrumptious and unique.