Reviews

Artist: Waking The Witch
Album:Hands & Bridges
Label:Witch Records
Tracks: 10
Rating: ****
Contact:   http://www.wakingthewitch.co.uk/

Technology is a wonderful thing. I was playing my musicmatch jukebox on random, when up came "Innocence" by Rachel Goodwin. It reminded me that I needed to revisit her cracking "Hey" album, which I'd picked up prior to her all too short appearance in the Club Tent at Cambridge a few years back. "Wonder what she's been up to" I thinks to myself and without leaving my seat, I discover she'd teamed up with Patsy Matheson, Jools Parker(another artist I'd lost track of) and Becky Mills, to form Waking The Witch, with whome she'd recorded two albums.
The debut album "Like Everybody" was released back in 03. Since the band have played Glastonbury, amongst other festivals and spent many days on the road. More importantly they formed Witch Records which they used to launch their second album, "Hands & Bridges" last year. We missed it at the time, but feel that it's a cut worthy of review.
The trick in pulling together a cd by a band that's comprised of people that have all had albums out in their own names is getting the balance right. Waking The Witch is not just for girls and their guitars, everyone brings their own strengths and foibles and from there it's the subtlety of the blend. You might want to talk single malts, but often it's the really good blends that have the really interesting flavours.
Like a good whisky, Waking The Witch have had time to mature. It brings a rich understanding to the process. The songwriting is shared across the band and each writer instinctively knows what to fuse to her piece to give it the most solid base.
When you get vocal harmonies right, I don't think there is a better sound in the world, regardless of the instrumentation or beat that supports it and Waking The Witch really do get their harmonies together. It comes as no surprise to hear that the album was nominated for a number of awards in te Yorkshire/Leeds area, where the band are based.
The band don't just experiment with the way they blend their voices. They remind you too what a versatile instrument the guitar can be, not only in terms of playing style, but also that it can border on being a good percussion instrument as well as a stringed one.
In short, "Hands & Bridges" brings together the sum of it's parts and serves up a brew that soars as it encaptulates. Technology took me from a one song reminder to a band that are now being included in a lot of car journies. By coincidence my favourite track on the album is "Watching The Stars" and I get the feeling I might just be doing that.