There’s something majestic about Daphne in the Attic. Majestic, but faintly unsettling… Hailing from the rebel county, Daphne have recently released their debut EP, ‘The Bucket and the Shovel’. A band that clings to the ideas of Tom Waits, Jim Morrison, and America’s southern swamps, the band play an oddly detached form of eccentric blues.
Their tracks are embellished with strings, both violin and cello, and with accordion, and with wailing of vocals and guitar. The resultant sound is very intriguing at first. It almost seems to defy appraisal. But on further listens, Daphne’s mask is lowered and you can see the music for what it really is. Somewhat imaginative, folk-rock of a kind that isn’t exactly world-beating, but is very respectable. That’s what ‘The Bucket and the Shovel’ is.
The band lead with Hey Hey Papa Joe, and if that title doesn’t suggest the band’s style, I don’t know what would. The track lists lazily around, with Daphne’s myriad instrumentation spinning off in all directions. The vocals take an equally lazy approach and the singer seems barely able to get them out in any coherent way as he takes on a Jim Morrison-esque style. That said, his vocal does have it’s own unique quality. It’s strained and pinched when it tries to get loud in the verses, and it draws you in. A very interesting one.
Peter and the Wolf is the centrepiece of the album and it’s without a doubt the best song on the EP. It’s a completely different beast to the first track, and to appreciate it, it’s almost a must to have experienced the previous track. They work very well in tandem. The string arrangement is much more ambitious on Peter and the Wolf with a collection of lead strings, plucking violins and the unmistakable, guttural tone of cello. The lyrics are much more involved on this track and Daphne conjure up some of the stock imagery of the blues genre. ‘Old men’, ‘working for the man’, ‘down to the river’ and ‘the preacher’ all feature on the song and they’re the hallmark of blues music. There isn’t anything wrong with that. Daphne in the Attic are simply wearing their influences on their sleeves.
The last track on the EP is The Holy Roller and Daphne return to the off-kilter blues-rock of Hey Hey Papa Joe. Some very nice strings and overall the cacophony of the instrumentation is starting to become quite pleasant. But there’s nothing amazing here; only more pleasantries.
Daphne in the Attic’s first offering, The Bucket and the Shovel, shows signs of potential, which is the case with a lot of first offerings. As it stands, The Bucket and the Shovel is nice, but not mind-blowing. We’ll see what looms over the horizon.