A CURIOUS MIX OF BRITISH FOLK MUSIC AND AMERICAN POLITICS
Trembling Bells’ song ‘Christ’s Entry Into Govan” has been called a “Leige & Leif slice of freak folk, that has this startlingly brilliant arrangement, full of intricate guitars and lovely harmonies, (and) so packed full of ideas and melody that its staggering.” (Backseat Mafia review). The Hobbledehoy could not agree more.
Since this 2018 release, the band has sadly broken up, with chief songwriter Alex Neilson and lead singer Lavinia Blackwall now producing well-recieved solo records.
Trembling Bells’ song ‘Christ’s Entry Into Govan” has been called a “Leige & Leif slice of freak folk, that has this startlingly brilliant arrangement, full of intricate guitars and lovely harmonies, (and) so packed full of ideas and melody that its staggering.” (Backseat Mafia review). The Hobbledehoy could not agree more.
Since this 2018 release, the band has sadly broken up, with chief songwriter Alex Neilson and lead singer Lavinia Blackwall now producing well-recieved solo records.
Trembling Bells have never been concerned with keeping with the times. Instead of angsty modern themes, they deal with gigantic archetypal forms like love and death, their clattering folk rock writ large in primary colours of bold, crashing chord progressions and songs studded with references to mainstream poets like Dylan Thomas.
They’re anachronistic, but not in a shallow way. Far from the psychedelic folk revivalists they’re often portrayed as, they’re much more redolent of a classicist impulse informed by lead songwriter Alex Neilson’s love for Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan, which has in the past made for some potently emotive, sky-punchingly romantic music. Their last album, 2015’s The Sovereign Self made gestures toward more conventionally progadelic moves and scaled back on the impassioned folk tonalities, and that approach still holds some sway over Dungeness. However, while they perhaps aren’t producing skyscraping bangers in the vein of ‘Goathland’ and ‘Willows of Carbeth’ at the rate they once were, this album claws back much of the wonkiness that initially made them so unique.