Matthew and the Atlas: Scavengers

I caught Matt Hegarty, who trades under the moniker Matthew and the Atlas, live at the Zenith Bar in Islington a week or so ago [note: this was in June 2009].  I was thoroughly impressed with what I saw and managed to wheedle an EP out of the guy, and I'm pleased to report that, much like his performance that night, it's excellent.

I'm not normally a fan of husky, honeyed vocals but in this instance I feel I must make an exception. His delivery is probably best described as "soulful", but that term's been so over-used by music hacks that it merely sounds trite and meaningless here. Suffice it to say there's enough gravel in his voice to impart plenty of bluesy imagery, but with enough genuine personality to prevent it coming across as too mannered. And while all this was very impressive in a solo acoustic performance, the record itself takes things to another level entirely.

Normally the addition of banjo/slide-guitar/etc is merely par-for-the-course for solo singer/songwriters, but in this case they are handled with such subtlety and grace that the end result far exceeds the sum of its parts - a depressingly uncommon occurrence in my experience. The scope of this record is vast, especially as it's merely a self-released EP. I'll cut this review short here, as I'm in danger of disappearing in a whirl of hyperbole and over-enthusiasm. Just have a listen to the tracks; they'll tell you far more than I ever could (surely a prime example of the benefits of MP3 blogging over print-media).