My Review: Snow Ghosts - The Fell

 Snow Ghosts - The Fell

On the podium as album of the year 2023: the old scribe has yet to decide on the position, but the Bath band will definitely get there, because inside the heart these compositions produce continuous magic, caress the skin and release miles of smile molecules, yes, that increasingly rare serotonin.

Certainly, the music contains layers of everyday difficulties, shadowy areas, stifled screams, but the two (now three because they are joined by an excellent multi-instrumentalist who answers to the name of Oliver Knowles) know how to combine the drama of Neo Folk with dark electronics, succeeding, incredibly, in giving energy and not torment. Certainly by listening, one does not laugh, but one reflects and does so very well, hence the smiles.

With this majestic work, never apocalyptic, always focused on representing the impervious powerhouses of the human spirit, the band knows how to take us by the hand and lead us into areas where we might be afraid. But they are confident, decisive, as well as delicate. Hannah Cartwright's voice is a sponge that stretches out its arms, to reach notes spreading vibrations and warmth, with the support of Ross Tones and Oliver, angels of sound and textures that overlook the banks of the river full of electronic beats, always experimental and vertical: it rises from the bottom to the top to elevate the mind. Each element becomes mythological, anachronistic, of an uncontrollable mystical propensity, the relationship with the soil and its elements (up to the secrets of Nature) wander freely in the grooves of these twelve pearls, to define the quest and place it in the arms of heaven. The pandemic event has increased the intention to evaluate the behavioural, political and social dynamics, to sew to the whole a dress that does not destroy anything, so that memory becomes an experience that teaches. They never raise their voices, they do not throw themselves quickly into silly impulses, but they reason, to become doctors of the soul who, in order to cure us, construct pills of poetry to be taken before and after meals...

But in the end, inevitably, we weep: an album like this can only lift the lids of our mediocrity because this wisdom, this mode of expression is a splendid seed that must be made room for.

May the incredulity of this beauty find a place in you.... 

Alex Dematteis

Musicshockworld

Salford

26th March 2023

https://snowghosts.bandcamp.com/album/the-fell