Saturday, 24 August 2013

Frances & Larootcrowd

You can find Frances & Larootcrowd on Soundcloud in the organic rock category.
If organic means authentic rather than fake, original rather than imitation, and quality rather than dross, then organic is certainly the right category for this band.

Crystalline is a word that comes to mind when listening to Frances in a song like  Morning.
I don´t mean this in a sugar sweet sense, but crystalline in the sense of clear, direct and strong and with the power to go straight to the heart.

This band have built their career over time, and they do the same with their songs. They are not in a rush to wrap up a tune in 3 minutes and they let the music breathe, take time to build up interesting solos and use clever arrangements to deliver maximum emotional power.

On the Festimad band page their music is described as psychedelic so I did start linking up their songs with sounds from years ago: there´s a nice easy shuffle groove on Lemon Tree      which took me back to America´s 1971 song A horse with no name and there are some vintage Pink Floyd inspired guitar solos on  River , which opens with a very Rubber Soul sound. 

Frances uses the higher register of her voice in most of her songs but on Travel  she shows off a powerful lower register which opens up more expressive possibilities.  I wonder if among her psychedelic virtual collection she´s followed Marianne Faithful, not a bad role model by any standards.

Frances Ribes Renshaw is the songwriter and the voice that fronts this outfit, and Larootcrowd are smooth and laid back. This band have done their time in their native Madrid and on the Spain circuit and they are clearly ready for their big moment. 

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