Rachael Dadd
Whether it be by handing out cake or percussive pots of rice to shake, Rachael puts her audience at ease - she's had plenty of practice, having toured England and Japan numerous times, and played festival slots since 2001 including an appearance on Glastonbury’s Acoustic Stage with one of her collaborative projects, Whalebone Polly (with Kate Stables of This is the Kit). She enjoys performing in intimate settings the most, but can adapt well, having proved this when she performed a series of shows in Japan, each to an audience of 3000.
Rachael makes most of her music by telling everyone that she's going to bed, and then sneaking off to her trusty 8-track and plugging herself in. Her songs sparkle with a wide-eyed wonder and exhibit a fascination for the everyday magic of life. Soon after stepping foot in Bristol in 2003, Rachael gained the reputation by Venue Magazine as, “the author of a deft, charismatic brand of folk music". Since then she has turned the heads of Rob Da Bank, Bob Harris and Huw Stevens, as well as those in other fields such as artist Yoshitomo Nara. Her last album The World Outside is in a Cupboard was described as “absolutely staggering” by Julian Peck of Sunday Best Recordings. She has been adopted as part of the Fence Collective’s extended family, and has been invited to be part of several compilation releases, the most recent being Little Things on Indy label Flau, from which The Wire Magazine picked out her contribution as one that “appeals most of all”.
Her latest album After the Ant Fight, recorded with Ali Chant (who has worked with John Parish, Howe Gelb and PJ Harvey), is her third album to be released on Japanese label Angel’s Egg and is her most varied and exciting work to date. On it she invites her Bristol friends to play, leading her impromptu penguin café orchestra down a lyrical and melodic path. On the album, not only does Rachael turn her own hands to piano, banjo, guitar, clarinet and harmonium, but too turns them to the album’s sleeve, appropriately dressing it in exquisite ant-depicting needlework. In this way she maintains a certain D.I.Y ethos that has been apparent since her very first 4-track recordings complete with hand-drawn covers.
“Rachael’s song writing is atypical – the obvious moves are avoided in favor of the element of surprise. ‘Table’ in particular is stunning…a Philip Glass-y piece of minimalism that rises to a peak on the back of a just-so mix of piano, harmonium, clarinet and one-take drums, then falls away again…the kind of freshness that draws you back for another listen, and another.” Jumped Up Pantry Boy, http://pantry.wordpress.com/
"The true star of a stage positively brimming with quality. Authentic, unpretentious and lightened by Ms Dadd's loveable persona, the bands ethereal folk seduced an audience already spoilt with highlights. Sumptuous harmonies, pastoral melodies and banana grins abound." Venue Magazine
"This LP will be filled with the same kind of magical, bewitching tunes as Føroyar, with vocal hooks that send thrilling shivers sprinting across your nerve endings and sink you into those hot joyful flushes that only come with the experience of something quite unique." Stool Pigeon
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