Without any doubt the singer/songwriter to watch this coming year is 30 year-old M. Craft. That's what I predicted when I first posted on this singer and I still feel the same. It's simply stunning that he hasn't received more attention via the music blogging community. The Australian-born and London-based musician traffics in music that stirs comparison to Nick Drake, Simon and Garfunkel, Josh Rouse, and he even mixes some bossa nova shuffle into the pot. Craft began his musical career when he co-founded the famed Aussie band, Sidewinder, in 1991 at age 15. After the band dissolved in 2000, Craft wandered about, eventually settling in London where he released his solo debut I Can See It All Tonight in 2004. It drew some heady praise from the UK press and Craft was eager to get the next record done, but was beset by a number of disasters. The most serious being an electrocution suffered from a guitar amp, one that left him immobile for a couple of days. With all that and the release of a hard won record behind him, things should be looking up for the singer with the release of Silver and Fire last March 20th. Craft isn't operating in the same space as most in the indie field, he sounds to me like a curious mixture of Hayden and Josh Rouse.... at 3 am.
you are the music [mp3]
In this song, "Demons", (which isn't on the album) when he sings the line "... and I tried so hard..." and the chord shifts on the word hard, and his voice drops to match, that's the hook... the tiny, shiny, blue hook that will pull you into this song and tell you to seek out Silver and Fire, Craft's debut on British label, 679 Recordings.
demons [mp3 bonus]
Craft's myspace page is where you can stream four more songs from the album.
On Craft's homepage are instrumental mp3s of the entire Silver and Fire album, here are a couple, go here for the rest.
silver and fire [mp3]
emily snow [mp3]
Official Site * Myspace * More MP3s * Buy M Craft
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