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7"
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VAN 347EP
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Saint Alto, Birmingham's own folk troubadour lost boys, are a four-piece alternative indie folk band. Only a few shows in, Saint Alto have gathered attention for "hauntingly beautiful" songs paired with the drive of indie folk found in artists such a Ben Howard and Bon Iver. If Vangelis had enlisted James Blake as part of the soundtrack to a new Sofia Coppola film, then it might sound like this. Guitar, vocals, harmonies, drums, and claps are offset with synths, atmospheric swells, and bass that rattles the rib cage. Lyrically addressing human flaws, love, depression, mind games, and the odd loneliness of the modern world, the music is shot through with hope; soaring synths, group harmonies, and an impassioned, fried lead vocal. Songs like "Manifesto for Suburbia" have all the drive, hope and resistance of early Arcade Fire and are offset against songs like "Tell Me Something", a broken electronic folk love song with a "heartbreakingly pretty, dark and beautiful vocal". A&R Factory went as far as to say the sound "may just prove to be the future of folk". These cropped-trousered depressives are made up of Phil Barber, Alex Dodwell, Dave Hammersley, and Tom Ridsdill and, presumably because of something terrible they did in a past life, currently reside in the Midlands, UK.
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