Blackfoot Circle

Yesterday, Blackfoot Circle announced that they were joining the likes of stadium-filling names such as The Stone Roses, The Maccabees and Paloma Faith who are going to be playing the Isle of Wight festival this June. It's good going for a band who come from Portsmouth and who haven't released a full studio album yet. They haven't even been signed yet, for Christ's sake.

However, there is a very, very good reason why they are playing at such a prestigious festival. Their songs possess a folky quality with just enough electric guitar so as to make them not too Mumford & Sons, but just enough banjo so as to give a nod to them. There's also an undertone of incessant anger and discontent behind the insistent guitar and scratchy vocals of lead singer Jake; the same thing has worked for bands like the aforementioned Mumford, so may it work its magic again with these boys.

As is often the way, I stumbled upon this gem of a band on Youtube, and I really didn't expect what I found. The track that I clicked on was Whiskey & Gin, a song that's about "going home and catching [someone] with your missus", according to Jake. The unpolished-ness of the whole song, the tone of the vocals, the subject matter, the way he mutters "fuck it!", pretty much sums up who Blackfoot Circle are as a band. There's no pretentious air of a band who think they've made it before they really have - these guys are waiting quietly for their turn in the spotlight, and in the meantime keep bashing out some fantastic tunes. Keep 'em comin', lads!

Rating: 8.5/10

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