The Unthanks
The Mercury Music Prize nominated Tyneside sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank have become most legendary for their live performances and Riverbank Arts Centre is delighted to be able to bring you a night of music with this superb act.
Empathetic stories of love, loss, birth, death, brawls and booze make for a rollercoaster ride through the human condition, as Rachel and Becky’s folk-club unaccompanied singing upbringing is set against otherworldly musical pictures, arranged by a band with influences from Steve Reich to Miles Davies, Martin Hayes to Robert Wyatt, Portishead to Sufjan Stevens.
It’s hard to conceive how music could sound so traditional and adventurous at once. It is a spell that has earned them fans as disperate as members of Radiohead and Portishead, Nick Hornby, Elvis Costello, Robert Wyatt, Ewan McGregor, Ryan Adams, Paul Morley, Ben Folds, Rosanne Cash and Dawn French!
Described by Britain’s leading music journalist Paul Morley as both “supernaturally ancient and defiantly modern, as coldly desolate asachingly intimate”, The Unthanks occupy unique ground.
The Unthanks are back with a new album, the follow-up to Here’s The Tender Coming, which featured in The Guardian and Uncut’s Best Albums of the Year and was awarded Mojo Magazine Folk Album of the Year.
At their Riverbank gig, The Unthanks will play music from their new album, as well as from their previous records, including The Bairns, which featured in both the The Guardian and Uncut’s Best Albums of the Decade, all genres, worldwide - the only British folk album to do so.
"They are like the morning dew that hasn't steamed off yet, they are fresh and new and I really don't think they know how good they are" Robert Wyatt
For More visit...
www.the-unthanks.com
www.myspace.com/rachelunthank
www.twitter.com/TheUnthanks
Watch the You Tube Links with Jools Holland below for a flavour of what to expect
Later With Jools Holland, BBC2
Here's The Tender Coming
Later With Jools Holland, BBC2
Lucky Gilchrist
REVIEW LINKS
BBC Review of Here's The Tender Coming:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/fb9p
The Guardian review of Here's The Tender Coming:
http://www.rachelunthank.com/downloads/tender/UnthanksGUARDIAN11-9-09%5B1%5D.pdf
The Guardian review of our Shepherds Bush Empire gig, 30th Nov:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/dec/02/the-unthanks-review
Praise for Here's The Tender Coming
"Even more satisfying, compelling and varied than the Mercury-nominated The Bairns. Haunting, original and magnificent"4 stars, The Guardian
"an exquisite mixture of light and dark, instinct and artistry"4 stars, Uncut
"Folk music's most beguiling act is back" 4.5 stars The Sun
"There is nothing obvious about this album" 4 Stars Observer Music Magazine
"..a rare, undisciplined magic..this is another formidable work" fRoots
"Absolutely exquisite. A real work of art. I will be playing it at least forever"Paul Morley
"When confronted with music as splendid as this, it’s easy to be swept along on a wave of purple prose.
“Beautiful”, “haunting”, and “beguiling” are all words that spring easily to mind whilst listening to this astonishing record..even such effusive descriptions drastically undersell" BBC Music Reviews
Send to a friend
