As hotbeds of British folk go, Lewes shakes its bells loudly. Shirley Collins has long lived in the town, there is a huge celebration on bonfire night, and folk music is played in its pubs, clubs and a dedicated record shop. Townsman Laurence Galpin, AKA Laucan, dips elements of this music in more ambient waters, with fingerpicked guitars and fiddles adding textures to his songs. Tracks such as Up Tomorrow and You Give Way sound almost like offcuts from Jeff Buckley’s Grace, their multi-tracked vocals accompanied by birdsong and electronics courtesy of Andrew Phillips of the Ninja Tune duo Grasscut.
Laucan’s voice isn’t particularly beautiful in its lower register, but when it’s higher, it’s rather come-hither, and he delivers such lines as “sunlight pours through the doorway, picks out patterns on the floor” with appropriate dreaminess. It’s a pretty album rather than a potent one, but there is genuine ambition in this small-town boy’s debut.
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