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 new talent 2007: patrick wolf
 to access audio and video on collective you need real player.The boy who fell to Earth. Wrestling a baritone ukulele and autoharp, with a make-up artist and LSO violinist in tow, Patrick Wolf arrives in a frankly alarming combo of gold lamé bow-tie and pistachio platform heels. Watching him totter down the stairs of an early music emporium one fears for the future of quixotic space-folk, should its foremost proponent impale himself on the sharp end of a bouzouki. It wouldn’t be the first disaster of the day. Apparently some wag had enquired earlier about a red nose. For shame! Picking his way through arcane dulcimers, mandolins and military drums, you can but wonder at Wolf’s outsider status. An ambitious multi-instrumentalist who’s routinely touted as one to watch, he’s enjoyed an only cursory relationship with mainstream success. Talented certainly but, with two albums under his glitter belt, hardly new. “I’m not fooled by the cusp anymore,” says Wolf, self-aware. He likewise counters the misconception that he’s “image first and music second. My dream this year would be that I want people to hear my music and then enjoy the rest of the show.” Commuting life into music since he was 12, Wolf sees composition as a “best friend”, a cathartic coping mechanism. “Instead of writing a diary or going to see a counsellor or taking anti-depressants, I’d write songs.” On forthcoming album, The Magic Position, he is joined by kindred spirits Marianne Faithful and Edward Larrikin for a gloriously overblown rumination on love in its spiritual, platonic, romantic and sexual forms.  It’s a riot of metaphorical and (on Bluebells) actual fireworks. “This album was born out of a very extreme and pure, naïve kind of love, naïve in the best sense. The two of us stayed in bed for two years, we had our own garden and our own language. And it was the first time in my life that that happened.” A tribute to love and a certain form of English eccentricity then. Raise a glass.
James Cowdery
Patrick Wolf – Bluebells, out now on Loog. The album, The Magic Position, released in 26 February 07. With thanks to Hobgoblin music, London.
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Read members' comments related to this music.
comment by badgirlswirlgirl
Jun 29, 2007
Yes, I was at that performance! I've seen him three times over the past year and that was definitely his best performance, I think he may have gained a few extra fans from that too.
comment by pwhbell
Jun 27, 2007
Listened to him for the first time on the Glastonbury 2007 TV coverage. Great energry, interesting mix of folk, dance and rhythm. Dare I say, a wee bit "Industrial" sounding in places - reminds me of Trent Reznor (NIN). I'll def look out for the album.
comment by badgirlswirlgirl
Jan 31, 2007
Yes, I've got them working now thanks, I keep forgetting I don't have that great a connection these days! Those sessions are brilliant, If you're a Patrick Wolf fan I suggest downloading the podcasts too, they're really great.
comment by rowan
Jan 30, 2007
They are working. The session videos have a spoken intro. And it sounds as though you're either watching it at too high a setting (so to "settings" in the pop to change that) or that they're buffering loads. Hope you get to enjoy them though.
comment by badgirlswirlgirl
Jan 30, 2007
I absolutely love Patrick Wolf but strangely enough only really got into him until October last year. I think the new album is great though, and can't wait to see in Sheffield soon.Just one thing, are the clips working for this feature? I keep trying to watch them but they're still images and also the ones in session appear to be him talking (though i didn't get very far because of the picture)
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 useful linkswww.hobgoblin.com
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see also
 patrick wolfwind in the wires  patrick wolftruck festival new talent 2007  ed bangerfeature  v v & the villainslive session  the maccabeeslive session  good shoeslive session music  music archive Watch music sessions and interviews from 2002 to 2008. books  books and comics archive Author interviews and reviews from 2002 to 2008. |
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