Life

A shipshape sound

ANOTHER week, another Noise Annoys feature on a PledgeMusic-funded record release.

Clearly PledgeMusic is the new black and the latest local act to find themselves bang on-trend for this season are Sea Legs, a collaborative team-up between bearded alt-folkster Ciaran Lavery from Aghagallon and Derry's clean-shaven minimal electronics wiz, Ryan Vail.

This pair of musically diverse artists have put their heads together and come up with an eponymous conceptually themed mini-album: seven highly atmospheric songs partially inspired by the Atlantic-buffeted coastline of Co Donegal, where the recording took place.

What do they sound like? Well, on Ebb's acoustic guitar dominated, fisherman-chatter sampling intro track and the delicate ballad Colour Blue the duo are operating firmly within Lavery's comfort zone, his finger-picked guitar and fragile vocals are underpinned by subtly swelling synths on the latter. However, as we get further from the shore on the The Sea At Night - the mini album's cinematic stand-out moment - things take a darker, bionically enhanced turn into Ryan Vail territory, Lavery's plaintive voice and pretty picking pulled along a moody, pulsing electronic undercurrent that recalls Vangelis, Tangerine Dream and maybe even John Carpenter. Mid-album moment Shipping Forecast combines wistful spoken words of life at sea narrated by American Brett Paice with the hum of a boat motor and mournful piano, before the gently swelling sounds of Nick Cave's Band pulls things back into folksier territory once more, with Lavery's hushed singing and playing again augmented by delicate dabs of complementary synth and tinkling piano.

The Sea Legs experiment then concludes with an all-too brief song snippet Flow (built around an REM-esque acoustic guitar figure) which gives way to the final track, Ceol Na Mara, a defiant fisherman's poem read by Conor O'Kane.

Clocking in at around 20 minutes, the record documents an intriguing combination of musical approaches dominated by Ciaran Lavery's more traditional 'song-based' compositions. However, Ryan Vail's low key electronic touches are essential to the record's brooding, slightly foreboding atmosphere which suggests the loneliness of sea life and the mysteries of the inky black depths below.

The duo's PledgeMusic campaign concludes today at Pledgemusic.com/projects/sealegs (it had reached 94 per cent of its target at time of writing), with the mini-album due for general release via the Quiet Arch label next Friday in Ireland and on Monday April 20 elsewhere.

Physical formats are a limited-edition CD and a very nice looking 10-inch LP pressed on pleasingly sea-green coloured marbled vinyl.

It will be intriguing to see how Sea Legs pull off these songs live: find out tonight at Smalltown America Studios in Derry, with support from Jealous Of The Birds, or indeed at next weekend's album launch in Belfast aboard the SS Nomadic on Saturday April 18.

Dublin heads will also get a chance to set sail with Vail and Lavery on Thursday April 16, at the Smock Alley Boys' School. Ticket details for all three shows can be tracked down via Fb.com/quietarch.

Support at the Nomadic show comes from Belfast indie folksters Arborist, the Mark McCambridge-fronted band who recently persuaded a certain Kim Deal to sing back-up vocals on their forthcoming single Twisted Arrow.

The ex-Pixies bassist and Breeders leader adds breathy sass to this a fine, fiddle-laced country-style ballad which you can listen to right now at Soundcloud.com/arboristmusic along with a selection of their other, non-Kim Deal enhanced tunes. The single itself is due for release on May 4 as a limited edition seven-inch vinyl and digital download.

Keep an eye on Arboristmusic.com for details of how and where you can buy it.