maple bee - chasing eva
sometimes you realise its a small world. a few years ago there was a sudden surge of girls with guitars. some declared themselves to be a bitch, whereas others were all torn up. some were even nuts. amongst this phase there was one girl who like ginger hair dye and butterflies. she released an album on julian copes echo label. the album came in a orange case and to this day is still easy to find in the archive. so imagine my surprise when i get an email from 'maple bee' advising of her new double cd and finding out that this is indeed the new guise for melanie garside. not only that but following her stint as solo artist she worked alongside the mediaeval baebes, and even played bass alongside her sister in queenadreena. damn. does she ever chill?
well actually yes, and its probably when listening to this rather special album. largely self produced, with maple bee playing most of the instruments, it's very obvious that the girl has far too much talent for one so small. so with all the various sidelines just how does this double cd, 22 track album sound? while the prospect of a double cd sounds hard going, each disc has a playing time of a perfect 40 minutes. no filler packed excess going on here.
its a singer songwriter album where the creator involves a lot of modern sonic twists and turns to the standard guitar drum, drum set up. so added to the mix are cellos, violins, recorders, and lots of weird electronica bits-n-bobs. though being careful to never overstep the mark and lose the humanity of the songs, which are, for the most part totally gorgeous. maple bee's voice is one that requires time and patience, it's not an obvious radio friendly voice, part kate bush, part cyndi lauper, part faery, but somehow maintaining an edge all her own. once you spend time with the album you find yourself immersed into the dark gothic overtones, which are enforced by the sumptuous cover artwork where mel/maple has been transformed into some deathbound 1920's silent movie starlet, an image which perfectly matches the brooding sound scapes.
as the album has 22 tracks, i am not going into a track by track run down. though by the forth listen certain highlights begin to really hit home : the simple beauty of 'hello eva' with the bittersweet acoustic guitar melody before some subtle enhancements take the track into a lost world. superb. this beat-less highlight is then followed by probably the most radio friendly track 'around for eva' which has a totally addictive hook line, the echoed far away vibe of 'sadness landed', excellently twisted folktronica of 'old ties', all before being drawn into the wonderfully dark and hypnotic double finale of 'cocooner' and 'the wing' both of which show just how far you can move from the traditional sounds and yes still create songs of wonderment.
if you want to discover a new talent who has crafted a wonderfully rich, challenging album which dips into the past, while utilising the new, then i advise you to pop over to maple bee website and check out the samples on offer. i should warn you, however, that you may not come back to reality the same person.