Margate based psych trio Gentle Stranger are about to release a new video for the track Once in a While, taken from their recent album Phantom Thoroughfare (PRAH Recordings), and we’re delighted to have the first plant of it right here on Backseat Mafia today.
“This song was partly inspired by a letter my grandma sent me, in which she wrote ‘put your trust in the fullness of time’ – the lyrics grew out of that.” explains Gentle Stranger’s Tom Hardwick-Allan, “But the ending came earlier, we started writing that on an autoharp during a photoshoot for The Wire. The words for the end trickled in over several months, though it’s not anything that hasn’t been said before. It’s so obvious it shouldn’t really need to be said, but I shout it to try and shake my own passive uncertainty, if nothing else.”
Part folk singalong, part skiffle track, Once in a while swirls and cracks and whips you into a violin/harmonica soaked frenzy – well, if not a frenzy certainly a sojourn around the house with a huge smile on your face. It’s this desperately lovable , instantly singable piece of (folk/psych) perfection, and if the song doesn’t work on you, then the video will. Made by teen directors Blythe Weidford and Florence Plant its a joyful romp.
Check it out, here
