Fair Mothers
TOP TEN: Fair Mothers’ Kevin Allan picks the albums that made the difference
Aberdeenshire’s Kevin Allan releases his second LP of this most universally fraught year today, August 7th. Valentine’s Day brought us ‘Separate Lives’, which was necessarily championed by Stuart Maconie on his 6Music Freakzone. ‘In Monochrome’ is an absolute stunner, we find. Raw, chilled, unblinking in the face of life, Kevin makes promises no answers. But what he does do is communicate with you, proffer you emotional information; learn alongside him. ‘In Monochrome’ is unflinching and visionary; it’s one of the essential albums of 2020, sayeth us here at BSM.
ALBUM REVIEW: Fair Mothers – ‘In Monochrome’: marrow-deep dark-folk truth and nuance
THE OCCULT poet, painter and writer Ithell Colqohoun advanced the premise in her book, The Living Stones of Cornwall, that your local geology births you as much as nurture and nature. She felt that the granite of West Cornwall gave rise to a certain hardened, otherworldly, stoicism. And you can see a certain geology at …
TRACK: Fair Mothers’ ‘Monochrome’ is unflinching, stark and so beautiful
YOU’LL never be able to accuse Kevin Allan, the creative force behind Scottish folk outfit Fair Mothers, of dashing off a quick, vapid pop hit for the lulz. That isn’t to say he isn’t capable – the musicianship he presents is deep and adept; but whereas for some music is a career, for Kevin, it’s …
SEE: unsettling Aberdeenshire folk noir from Fair Mothers
A TREMULOUS, held guitar note, fed through fuzz and vibrato, with the raw quality of a wire fence shuddering in the wind; a darkly delicate piano arpeggio, as if remembered from the end of sleep. The tune has the quality of a haunted fairground under brooding skies. And so we’re into the dark world of …