Cambio Sun

May

posted by tommy

This jam raises a whole bunch of questions for me but similarly it provides the answers for those willing to take them at face value. I’m even willing to GIVE them at face value. Anyway, I think it’s reasonably well accepted now that the folk bubble has burst and we’re living in a post-folk world that has retained the cream from the top and a few dreggs from the bottom. Obviously, we still have Mumford and Sons (upto you which camp they fall into) but artists like Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes will both release records that sell and sell (or stream and stream, given consumption trends). The Tallest Man On Earth will still sell out Opera House shows, yes, but each and every time I see PR batting in a folk act I can only really think ‘whoops’. It’s all pretty and lovely and heartfelt but if you’ll cast your mind back five years folk was actually the realm of the tastemakers which doesn’t really seem to be the case anymore.

So, that established [at least in mine own eyes] then comes the question on everyone’s lips; where to now for Angus and Julia fans? Do they go down with the ship? I say no. No they don’t. And the best possible island to which I can see these folks swimming is one called Willow Beats. Let’s pause to recognise the logical inconsistency of that last metaphor. Willow Beats are Melbourne producer and vocalist Narayana Johnson and Kalyani Ellis. I’m sure more than a few of you are familiar with Willow Beats and are preparing a supersized takedown for my comments section but who there big guy. Ease your heart, hear me out. This isn’t a criticism. Angus and Julia weren’t always reserved for screaming 16 year old girls, I presume they were once the domain of reputable music types. Maybe they were, anyway, I’m swinging blindly here. This is a guy girl duo sporting forest friendly press shots and highly accessible female vocal lines over a semi drum’n'bass beat. Granted, the beat throws you in an entirely different direction to ol’ A+J and there isn’t the reliance on vom-worthy hyper-emotion but I can see this happening in a big way accross the Js. Even artists likes Mammals are blurring the lines between folk and electronica though not in the same way the folktronica acts of 2005-2010 did, but in a manner more beats-centric. Mammals ft. Flash forest even sat at #3 on Hype Machine for a period though in the global domain it’s probably far less edgy.

All of that is semi-vaguely pointing you and I at Cambio Sun whose reasonably recent track Intuition (a total winner, I might add) has been a mainstay of my listening experience since Hugh posted about it a day or two back. Nope, not one for the Angus and Julia fans but for those who once folked, this isn’t a stretch. For those who loved their Sufjans and their Bon Ivers (and were ok with the both of them being slightly exploratory in their more recent sounds) this could have some serious appeal. So again, I direct you to this as a primary example of a transitional artist that heralds in a new sphere within which we can praise the lords of harmony and falsetto. It’s got slow build and some really very pretty tones and again, producer and saccarine vocal have their merry way with each other.