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Icarus

The Staves

The Staves - Icarus

Agape

Bear's Den

London trio Bear’s Den have been busy the past year touring with Gentlemen of the Road and promoting the release of their latest EP Agape. The EP was released byCommunion Records, founded by Ben Lovett of Mumford and Sons and Kevin Jones of Bear’s Den. Hear their fresh folk sound and catchy melodies on this track “Agape” and head over to their website for a free download.

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Today’s the day that Communion Records (which was started by Mumford And Sons’ Ben Lovett, along with Kevin Jones, and producer Ian Grimble) releases its new compilation album New Faces in the UK. The release, which includes tracks from the likes of Michael Kiwanuka, Gotye, Ben Howard and James Vincent McMorrow, is now available to stream on NME.com via the link above.

A launch party for New Faces, featuring sets from Matt Corby, Joe Banfi and Dan Croll, will be held at London’s Shepherds Bar on April 26th.

The full album tracklisting is:

Michael Kiwanuka - ‘Tell Me A Tale’
Julia Stone - ‘Let’s Forget All The Things That We Say’
Joe Banfi - ‘Olive Green’
Gabriel And The Hounds - ‘What Good Would That Do?’
Daughter - ‘Love’
3 Blind Wolves - ‘Emily Rose’
Ben Howard - ‘Three Tree Town’
Keaton Henson - ‘To Your Health’
Lucy Rose - ‘Middle of the Bed’
Matt Corby - ‘Kings and Queens, Beggars And Thieves’
Boy and Bear - ‘Milk and Sticks’
Jocie Adams - ‘Bed Of Notions’
Dan Croll - ‘Marion’
The Apache Relay - ‘American Nomad’ (Communion version)
James Vincent McMorrow - ‘Hear The Noise That Moves So Soft And Low’
David McCaffery - ‘Stars’
Nathaniel Rateliff - ‘Just For Me But I Thought Of You’
Will Nott - ‘Won’t Go Back’
Bear’s Den - ‘Pompeii’
Gotye - ‘Bronte’

Click here or above to listen to the album on NME.com, and pick up your copy today!

So Latitude was immense. Unexpectedly my absolute highlight was The Staves (on Ben Lovett’s Communion record label) in a tent in the middle of the woods in a downpour, with Matt Ingram from Laura Marling’s band drumming and Pete Roe walking past me in the crowd to watch (I swear I see him quite often in crowds at Communion gigs, saw him at the first Bushstock too).

Laura was of course wonderful, and as has happened before at festivals, the sun LITERALLY just came out before she played, having been quite cloudy beforehand. She must be a sun goddess, no other explanation for it!! Her set was short & sweet and she played no new songs and only full band ones. Having seen her 13 times before & met her, this was probably the most underwhelming time, but how can she actually be underwhelming, NO it isn’t actually possible. She did play Blackberry Stone, so I was a happy girl for the rest of the day. She was also really cute and drew a huge crowd. I got a bit annoyed with the crowd near me, who when she sai ‘it’s really nice to be here” they said “yeah, sounds like you mean it”, sarcastically (idiots - she’s just a bit awkward) and they also complained when she didn’t play Ghosts, which for me is FAR from her best song. Grrr. She finished on I Speak Because I Can, and it was probably the best I’ve heard her sing it, so no complaints from me.

What made it all the more special was leaving LM and seeing my favourite poet in all the world, Simon Armitage perform straight afterwards, for me seeing LM and SA in the space of 5 minutes break was a dream come true.

Elbow, who I’m not a massive fan of were actually really good, and had an ace firework display at the end of their set.

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros were legendary - so much fun, entertaining and energetic, loved them - in Jade’s words “Enjoy the rest of your time on Earth!” - Alex Ebert really is away with the fairies, but in the nicest possible way. I released me inner hippy in the sunshine during Home I think :)

I also caught lots of literary stuff, poetry and comedy - such an eclectic festival, would really recommend it. Saw loads more great bands too, perhaps I’ll write some more about them and Laura a bit later.