Album Review

Held By Hands – To And Fro EP

• 16th Oct 2007

Held By Hands is the brainchild of Matthew Johnson, a warped acoustic prodigy in a similar vein to Patrick Wolf. Imagne Wolf’s little brother, trapped away upstairs, with an acoustic guitar. He’s gutted; Patrick’s got the iMac, all the little bro’s got is a six-track, acoustic guitar and violin. Well Johnson’s invited his mates round, they all watched Sideways and stuck on a bit of Spiritualized. It’s now 4am, and, my word, they’ve cracked it.

“Found It Hard”, the opening track, clocks in at just over a minute, but manages to pack as much punch as the new Arcade Fire record in its entirety. “Trading” is the closest we get to Patrick Wolf, picking away at an acoustic whilst opening his heart, cymbals crash dramatically and violins pull the heartstrings. They even fit in a bit of echoing guitar and an archetypal British-post-rock group-sing-along. ‘Seven By Twelve’ is a softly spoken country jig with beautiful melodies and a little harmonica to boot. As with the opener, it’s a short dit, leaving you gagging for more. Final track, ‘A History of Forget Me Nots’, sounds like Foals without electrics; instead of bleeps and funky basslines, we get under produced drums, hand claps, acoustic guitars and violins. It’s acoustic nu-rave, which actually sounds a lot better than you’d think. The EP, in a nutshell, is one of the most diverse and expanding things I’ve heard all year. This band/man/collective have the potential to be huge.