Monday, January 17, 2011

Zoey Van Goey Is A Poet & Doesn't Know It


Zoey Van Goey are Matt Brennan, Michael John McCarthy, Kim Moore and Adam Scott. Brennan, McCarthy and Moore, hailing from Canada, Ireland and England respectively, formed the initial trio in Glasgow in 2006, with Scott becoming a fully fledged member in 2010.

The band's new album, Propeller Versus Wings, has been inspired by Powell & Pressburger's magnificent A Matter of Life & Death, a film with which it shares a sense of romance and adventure. Perhaps emboldened by the addition of the multi-talented Scott (as well as the results of their research), this collection of songs sees Zoey Van Goey displaying a new found musical confidence, borrowing freely from disparate styles whilst still sounding like themselves, in a fashion not dissimilar to heroes such as Yo La Tengo and The Magnetic Fields.

They're mathy, rustic, weird, and quite good. They're like a jumble of influences as much as they are a jumble of nationalities and it's this sense of confusion that really helps the band stick out. In fact, it might not really be fair to compare them to anyone as they've gone their own way and come up with some fantastic music. To quote a famous Scottish band..."I love your friends they're all so arty." That pretty much sums up Zoey Van Goey.

Propeller Versus Wings comes packaged in specially commissioned artwork by Glasgow-based artist Ursula Cheng, including a 9 panel fold-out illustration. Equal parts Quentin Blake, Jamie Hewlett, Jimmy Corrigan and Hayao Miyazaki it is the work of a kindred creative spirit, bent on making strange the stuff of everyday life in order to fashion a looking glass through which the mundane becomes something more magical.

Download: The Cake & Eating It

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