Peacefrog Rec. 
The Memory Band : Apron Strings (UK,2006)***°'
I almost missed the full release of The Memory Band, but then found a copy in a store sell out so that I was able to check the album out for a fair price. It is in fact already their second album. The term nu-folk fits them well, because most of the album feels like a warming and building ups, or further exploring moods of rather simple songs and a bit of improvisation (with the violin leading this mostly, or with song inspiration), mostly as if there has been made deliberate logical inspirations that would interconnect the tracks well. When it comes to the British traditional, “Green Grows the Laurel” it really comes to a first highlight, with a very convincing vocalist (Nancy, worth being compared with better folk/folkrock voices), first with simple guitar mostly, then with the violin slowly coming in with the rhythm section. It builds up beautifully an increasing emotionality in the improvisational part (violin, bass, drums, some acoustic guitar) and really breaks out with it, then calms down again in beauty, to leave a last refrain of the song expose it's full sensitivity. The track after this, “I wish I wish”, seemingly also a traditional, sounds nothing more than a second warm up chamber-like improvisation in the remains of this previous moment. The second unboubted highlight is the song “Why”, which I knew from a previous mini-cd, a more focused folk flavoured song with beautiful violin. If all songs were of the calibre of these two highlights this album would have been a classic masterpiece (here with the moving lyrics of “why does your love hurt so much…”). But also after this moment it falls back again into more simple thoughts and borrowed time contemplations.
