Starless & Bible Black

Starless & Bible Black | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 24, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Locust
• ASIN: B000I2IRVY
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #285,036 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Folk strains, art songs, and electronic atmospherics combine for a beguiling blend in the debut by this Manchester trio. The British folk comes mainly from guitarist Pete Philipson, whose playing recalls the era of Pentangle's Bert Jansch and John Renbourn. The art comes from French transplant Helene Gautier, Philipson's songwriting partner, whose upper register sounds ethereal on "Time Is for Leaving" and "Tredog," but reminds of darker chanteuses such as Nico or Marianne Faithfull on "Allsight." The atmospherics are provided by Raz Ullah, whose keyboards and other electronics suggest the "treatments" that Brian Eno once brought to Roxy Music. With a rhythm section on some cuts and chamber horns on the jazzy "B.B.," the music covers a lot of territory and offers continual surprises, without straying from the folk underpinnings of Philipson's guitar. There's an Irish lilt to the instrumental "Untitled Cantiga," while the following "The Bitter Cup" opens with a drone of an Indian rage. The propulsive "Hermoine" could pass as a Velvet Underground outtake. --Don McLeese

Product Description

This group makes spirited and catchy songs in the grand tradition of classic British folk rockers Pentangle and John and Beverly Martyn straight on up through the halcyon days of early 4AD Records. On their debut, the diverse Manchester three-piece brings to bear much of the lively attitude, passion, and rain of the old textile city they've come to call home for the last several years. The result is a collection of eleven songs, at once earthen and elevated, that are given added mood and flavor by the charcoal vocals of French chanteuse Helene Gautier.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Starless are More than A King Crimson Album, December 2, 2006

By 

R. T. Duprey "Speculative consumer...soon to ... (CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Starless & Bible Black (Audio CD)

I went through much hullabaloo to acquire this album, on the strength of a review in Harp.

All I can say is that this album is quite worth the effort.

It's old-school folk at it's best: unassuming, quiet, and affecting. To me it's somewhere in between Led Zeppelin's quiter moments and Portishead, at times.

But that doesn't mean the album isn't playful. The first track has videogame and cartoon incidental noise, so that Yogi Bear is running for his picanic basket all over the song.

In sum, there isn't that much I can say except that this album is perfect for a rainy day in November or a sunny day in April. It's got jazz, electronic experiments, old school folk, and it still manages to cohere into a laid back and original sound.

Wonderful. One of my top for 2006.

4.0 out of 5 stars WORSE / SAME / BETTER? DISCUSS!, January 31, 2010

By 

Kerry Leimer (Makawao, Hawaii United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Starless & Bible Black (Audio CD)

Kate Rusby / Shelleyan Orphan / OrSo / Cowboy Junkies.

Unusually textural and timbral for vocally-based music, Starless & Bible Black -- it's the ampersand that makes the difference -- borrows one of the great titles of 20th Century rock, and goes on to have little to do with it. A highly democratic mix (on one track the vocal is buried between the gtr strums, beautifully peeking and gapping into a terrifically subtle fill) that hesitates to feature any one thing over any other, the only (subjective / personal / disposable ) criticism I have concerns what is probably a Moog Voyager (the digital answer to the analog experience!) doodling a little too forward in some places, while later managing to provide a perfect drone to the sadness of The Bitter Cup: could John Barleycorn be far behind? At times playful and even charming in its seeming casualness, you'll be hard pressed to find a single Fracture.