Come join the Carnival...

Carnival have finally uploaded two demo recordings to their myspace. They describe their sound as "a return to chord based folk, country and pop music of the 60s and 70s" but with the "free form noise and looseness of alt rock from the 80s and 90s". Here you get a guitar indie-rock sound mixed with a female vocal taking influences of folk-country (along the lines of Mazzy Star), although more indie-pop-punk and varied, fluidly moving from the seductive to sarcastic taunting in a breath.

Leading off with an equally seductive and contemptuous line in "Sunday Morning is laughing time..." their track Sunday Morning is the one which immediately demands attention, and by the time you are led into its alt-country refrain of "and you want it all this time" and then onto the expletive anger of "you can still taste the carnival that was happening in your mind", you get the sense of a vocal that does it all, its almost manic-psychotic in the way it captures multiple moods in its expression. Add in a chunky guitar sound just the way I like it, and I know I'm listening to something quite special here.

As a band I haven't had the opportunity to catch live as yet, these two demos are all I have to go by, and while the other track, a more fun indie-pop Andy's 15, doesn't quite rise to this same level, I'm still left with the feeling that if there's more material this good I could love this band. They're back recording further material at the moment and making a video after which they return gigging, and I'll be watching out this time. Come join the Carnival, this is a band with a lot of appeal.

Related Links:

http://www.myspace.com/comejointhecarnival