Naming a band The Melodic means you instantly have a lot to live up to. That’s no problem here — The Melodic are, indeed, beautifully melodic. And the new British Folk ensemble’s free local appearance Friday should be a delight.
AllMusic, the online music guide, compared the group — whose wonderful first full-length, Effra Parade, came out this month — to the Incredible String Band. Others, lured by the gently conversational vocals, have mentioned Belle and Sebastian and Bert Jansch.
The central figures of the young South London outfit are Huw Williams and Rudi Schmidt, both of whom grew up in music-loving households. Once they decided to put together a group, they first called it Melodica, Melody and Me. After shortening the name, they released an EP.
On Effra Parade, The Melodic features six members, but the touring version of the band is different and more intimate. Williams plays guitar and sings and Schmidt plays melodica and the charango (examples of the worldly instruments the band likes to incorporate), while Lydia Samuels sings and provides more melodica and John Naldrett plays bass.
The Melodic’s original songs like “Dreams of Air” and “On My Way” have a refreshing awareness of the world and how it relates to emotions, but there’s also a political element. “Ode to Victor Jara,” for example, remembers the leftist Chilean folksinger murdered by the Pinochet regime after that country’s 1973 coup.
THE MELODIC plays a free show Friday, Nov. 29, at MOTR Pub. Find more info
here .
This article appears in Nov 20-26, 2013.
