| Starless & Bible Black make beautiful spirited & catchy songs in the grand tradition of classic British folk rockers Pentangle and John & Beverly Martyn straight on up through the halcyon days of early 4AD records. On their debut self titled outing, the diverse Manchester 3 piece brings to bear much of the lively attitude, passion and rain, rain, rain of the old textile city they’ve all come to call home for the last several years. The result is a great collection of 11 songs-at once earthen and elevated – that are given added mood & flavor by the charcoal vocals of French chanteuse Hélène Gautier.
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“Starless and Bible Black’s music feels absolutely effortless, born out of thin air...It’s like Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval singing through a curtain of opium smoke and fireflies, only a whole lot more awesome—Starless and Bible Black is music you’ll wish would play in perpetuity.” - Harp
“This Manchester-based group is responsible for one of the year’s best folkie songs” New York Times
“This more subtle direction might be the next frontier for freak folk” National Public Radio
“full-blooded revivalists of bold 70's folk rock eclecticism……from bare acoustic ballads to Pentangle style rambling and bitter sweet harmonies……they accomplish all this with a firm perception of their own powers, drawing on such varied sources without succumbing to self conscious classicism, and stamping their own personality on their material” - The Wire
“They draw upon any number of intertwined traditions simultaneously….. the group moves crisply through songs informed by Appalachian folk, downtempo jazz, Middle English pastoralism, and smoky continental balladry. Starless & Bible Black perform each of their stylistic shifts with an effortless agility, resulting in a collection that captivates primarily through its graceful, almost nonchalant simplicity.” Pitchfork
"I’m not much given to hyperbole or to over-excited NME style ‘new favourite band’ outpourings. Despite this, I feel duty-bound to tell you that Starless and Bible Black are probably the best band operating out of Manchester right now. They really are that good." - Harvest Home
“They may call Manchester home, but Starless And Bible Black are not your sister’s Madchester band. This trio’s debut album is filled with lyrical ballads that span an emotional rollercoaster; from sweet and charming daydreams to guttural expostulations, their words shift from weightless to crushing.” CMJ, Best New Music
Starless & Bible Black's music conjures images of foggy moors, mist covered forests and old crumbling runes dripping with moss" -
No Depression
"intriguing British trio that mesmerizes in the British folk tradition, fresh with electronic warblings and playful, plucky, rainy day boogie" -
positively yeah yeah yeah
“While “freak-folk” typifies America in all her goofy, communalist, postmodern Californi-ality, Starless & Bible Black blow in with the green, reserved air of the heath and the Arctic Circle, serious and hard.” Dusted Magazine
“A melding of early 4AD’s ambient experimentations with the baroque elements found in neo-folkies” Paper Thin Walls |
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