Pumajaw - Curiosity Box

PSYCHEDELIC FOLK

Is this thing on? That’s what you might be asking yourself as the first album for Fire by Fence Collective affiliates Pinkie Maclure and John Wills kicks in. Against the picking of a lone guitar, shimmering bells and whispered vocals far off in the background, the dial needs to go right up to hear even a vague impression of the duo’s spectral loveliness.

This album is lovely though, growing towards a charming folk rock set whose most vividly commercial passages remain offset by Maclure’s eccentric vocalising – imagine Sandy Denny if she had made her music in the Haight. So central are Maclure’s vocals to the record, in fact, that even guest appearances from James Yorkston and Alasdair Roberts can’t begin to overshadow them.