This track by Glasgow (and environs) band/collective Trembling Bells is on the Uncut free CD this month, which features acts signed to Damon Albarn’s boutique label Honest John’s Records. It has taken over my life. Lavinia Blackwall has a unique voice, one that combines trained operatic range with effortless folk intonation and occasional rock raunch. ‘Goathland’ sounds like Sandy Denny channeling the ISB’s Robin Williamson (or vice versa.Alex Neilson’s songs (he’s a drummer who has worked with likes of Will Oldham and Alasdair Roberts)can occasionally annoy, but this one just haunts me. The new album is called Carbeth, a place which has always fascinated me. This is what their Myspace site says:

Trembling Bells are Alex Neilson’s song-based group who seek to reanimate the psychic landscapes of Great Britain and relocate them to some vague, mythic land where basic human crises are encountered and conquered via a love for canonical rock, traditional folk and Earlie Musik

Other members include Lavinia Blackwall (vocals, keyboard, guitar), Ben Reynolds (guitar, harmonica, vocals) and Simon Shaw (bass, vocals):

Lavinia Blackwall has played previously with Alex in Directing Hand and is a member of the The Pedulums.

Not to everyone’s taste, perhaps…seeing as I’ve just been instructed to turn this down so the women in the household can watch Britain’s Next Top Model…anyway…I think they could be a Scottish Arcade Fire if they wanted to. Which I surmise they don’t.