Music: Featherstone - The Paper Kites

Featherstone

Artist: The Paper Kites

Album: Woodland - EP

Genre: Singer/Songwriter

Release Date: 2011

Plays: 313

I found this band entirely by chance and lady luck bestowed upon me a gorgeous musical sound. While trawling on YouTube following the "YouTube suggests" going from song to song for a good long while I saw this music video. The video in itself was magical enough. A style like Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak - (awful film, great kids book) with children in a forest like the lost boys in Peter Pan; rallying the troops together in semi-slow motion. The song walks along as the children do so too. I want you to watch it to enjoy the pure joy of the children as the two sides face each other off, so I won't spoil it.

Anyway, the song. We start with a muted strumming, which always makes me listen in. The lack of key, the uncertainty of where we're going to come in. You can hear that the person playing guitar is changing the chords alongside the voices but you can't actually hear them. It's like an illusion to the ear; but I enjoy that trickery. We are left with the voice and muted guitar until the guitar picking joins in, dancing and darting along in the background. With the bass note of the chord becoming more prominent but still we are listening to what I see as the shading of a song; light and subtle.

There is no obvious chorus, it is more like a returning refrain followed by non-vocal "oo-ing" and this is enough to break up the song without breaking the flow. The lyrics maintain a smooth contemplation; they are chosen carefully and are wonderfully descriptive and pensive. The phrasing is that of a poem, the breaks between lines allow the song to breathe. There is no rush to get to the end, and you are given permission to slow down with them.

"And my love is yours but your love's not mine,

So I'll go, but we know I'll see you down the line.

And we'll hate what we've lost and we'll love what we find

And oh I'm feeling fine, we've made it to the coastline."

The percussion is beautifully used. Yes the bass drum walks through most of the song keeping that steady pace. But the occasional flourishes are what I enjoy especially. Drums and drummers are often under appreciated within music - I know this from bands when I was younger, people would often make fun of the drummer and their role yet I have been fortunate to play with some very talented drummers! - I just don't think it's fair. Good drummers (like Josh Bently who plays drums for The Paper Kites) know when to put in those accents in keeping with the tone of the rest of the piece without shouting.

The song does not deviate from the tone it portrays from the beginning. Though there is a crash of a symbol, the thumping of the toms, the plodding of the bass drum, this does not change the song into something else. Unlike other tunes where other instruments joining in causes the sound to change, pick up, driving on, lifting up. If anything the introduction of the guitar, the percussion, the brass it cushions the song further; it is truly enchanting.

Thanks for reading,

Naomi xx