I was of course tempted to restart this feature after our Summer break with the new Major Parkinson track ‘Saturday Night’, but there’s new Major’s material coming this Friday also, and an unexpected new release from Swedish band Cinnamon Space Machine really captured my attention at the weekend.
They’re a band I’ve written about a few times, firstly when they released their excellent ‘Captain’s Log’ album back in 2018, where I gave them an extra mark simply for having a band photo featuring a Cardiacs t-shirt - and I’m pretty sure Tim would have enjoyed the album too, it was full of good tunes.
New track ‘A Bird Lit Down’ again shows the depth of their songwriting, this time a fluid melodic song boosted by the quite lovely contributions from string players Natalie Padilla on fiddle and Viktoria Hillerud on cello - and even as a member of the Cellists Union I have to admit that it’s Natalie who probably steals the show. The band (exclusively) told me that the song is “about how we usually have a very narrow view on ‘value’. People view it in terms of money or as a simple tit for tat, when in fact what we consider valuable is highly personal and not always a straight forward exchange that can be quantified. But on the surface, it’s a song abut taking care of three different animals”.
I really like this idea, and I like too the way the band have developed musically over the last few years. Still clearly influenced by psych / prog styles, yet in ‘A Bird Lit Down’ with richer, instrumental textures and really gorgeous melodies. Hope we get another album in the next 12 months, but I know these things take time.
Find them on Facebook.