Narc. Magazine Online
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Tom Astley discovers a tender folk-inflected track from the Newcastle musician
The Dawdler’s Cuckoo offers a tender folk-inflected song, melded with synthetic, yet nonetheless romantic, sounds. Coming in advance of an EP due in July, Cuckoo’s lyrics are personal, idiosyncratic and hard to pin down. This makes them all the more intriguing. Meanings are hinted at, rather than made overt, and the music supports this ambiguity perfectly.
A vast ocean of reverb trails that are both relaxing and slightly disconcerting prop up the delicate finger-picked guitars and falsetto vocals. The machine and the human blur together by the end, the bass synth gaining a sinister edge, and swells of sound eclipsing the guitar, only to evaporate and leave the guitar to end the track alone. This is a beautiful piece of music, well worth multiple listens.
