BAND review: Smoke Fairies – Chichester duo ‘wing’ it in style.

Smoke Fairies – Chichester duo ‘wing’ it in style.
James Cox

Half way into their signature tune “Catching leaves” you start to get a hint of deep-South bluegrass about the Smoke Fairies.
This is bizarre considering the smoky vocals, atmospheric harmonies and steam train guitar rhythms, that would lend them selves to anything written by Mark Twain, contrast uncomfortably with their creators, two porcelain faced nymphets from humble Chichester, West Sussex.

It could be the time out the Fairies took whilst at University, where they performed around New Orleans, eventually hopping the greyhound to New York, but the Fairies’ sound defies their origins and their age (both Katherine and Jessica are 22 years old).

Their style lingers somewhere, mysteriously between Nickel Creek and Beth Orton, from the skiffle enduced “I’m so lonely” to the melancholic “I’ll move on”, the sounds are so refreshing and new (yet so old). Close your eyes and listen to “Smoke filled room”, you could be riding a tug down the Mississippi.

But these girls are not a cliché. Mixing mysticism with brooding sentimentality for another place, you’ll be so captivated the pure ambition of the vocal arrangements and the hypnotic melodies that when you stumble from your bar stool onto a damp London high street you’ll question whether you’ve just stepped through the looking glass.

Highly original and hauntingly delicate, Smoke Fairies web site is at: www.smokefairies.com and future gigs include: