Songs of Magic

Truth But Not Fact by Songs Of Green Pheasant

There are times when I want to listen to weird singer-songwriter stuff, and right now is one of them - honestly though, this is not your average 'just a guy and a guitar' kind of thing. Songs Of Green Pheasant, the solo project of Duncan Sumpner, a 30-year-old artist and teacher from Sheffield, makes dreamy pop songs that sound like they were recorded by pixies, underwater... in a cave. On audio tapes sprinkled with some magic dust.

Seriously, it is that good, and that strange.

Sumpner initially sent the tracks that would become his SoGP album as demos to UK-based Fat Cat a few years back, but the label had a hard time getting ahold of him until recently. The entire album was recorded in the isolation of the Peak-district in northern England, in Sumpner's kitchen, on 4-track tape. Awesome, right?

According to the press release on the CD, the music the label had heard initially was digitally compressed to remove tape hiss, and had a very strange and murky sound to it. The version of the album Fat Cat is releasing is from the original audio tapes, with all the original tape noise, which really opens up the sound. It is a haunted take on indie folk-pop music, and really beautiful, with 6- and 12-string guitars, bass, drum machines, recorder, and a gang of FX units and unusual percussion and sound sources.

The Songs Of Green Pheasant album comes out this next week in the UK, and will be available to buy direct from Fat Cat - the album will be released domestically in the US in another couple of months, so if you won't have to pay import prices if you can handle the wait.