Thing of the Day 

Hamilton Yarns sparkle...

March 8th 2011

HAMILTON YARNS – Hello, Sparkle! (self release) – Hello, Sparkle! is an hour of the most beautifully relaxed sitting in the sunshine, of contentment in green fields, an hour of bare feet dangled in fresh rivers, of butterflies and dandelion clocks, an hour of some the most uplifting simple music you’re ever likely to hear.  Delightfully crafted, hand stitched, the band say this is the sound of small town starkness and stripped-back melancholy, they even mention a state of disillusion in their press release - maybe the glorious sunny spring day that is today is making this sound extra specially uplifting, but I’m pretty sure it sounded equally as good in the grey rain of last Thursday.  

They sound like this:

   Hamilton Yarns talk of fairly aimless wanders through smalltown daydreams, they delight us with hand-pumped harmoniums, transient voices and delicate singing, all beautifully quiet and always soothingly wonderful. Birdsong, footsteps on a path, gentle traffic drones, pebbles, simple things stitched together with delightful song, clever simplicity. Lifeless fairground rides, delicate interludes that taste of Sea Nymphs' Englishness, of the South Downs, the sounds of distant fireworks, church bells. Delicate acoustic guitars, little bits of wind instruments, rounds of delicate singing, massed voices that never get loud – always delicate, always sweet, always unforced.   Was that crow cawing outside, or was it  part of the recording and coming out of the speakers? Glimmers of playfulness and the grass must always look greener to everyone, they may say it's small town countryside boredom and melancholic emptiness but this feels wonderfully green and so inviting as we soak it in here in the concrete and pollution of East London… but in a way they're right, and they have caught some of that strange, damaged magic of living in a small town in southern England, something too fragile to describe save, maybe, in music like this.  There is a bittersweet, haunted feel that they touch on again and again, the same undercurrents that run through Cardiacs and the aforementioned Sea Nymphs. Not truely melancholy, but a transporting timelessness that leaves you longing for something forgotten in a million adult stupidities, in the fight to get through the day. 

   Metronome ticking and ducks and beautiful innocence, childlike daydreams; Hamilton Yarns do it again - another deliciously simple, wonderfully crafted homemade album.  The sound of weights lifting off your shoulders...

   Hello Sparkle! is out now as a very limited edition in handmade screen-printed cover, find out lots more from their equally delicately crafted website:

www.hamiltonyarns.co.uk