Wednesday 11 February 2009

Ellie Goulding - New Waves @ Breaking More Waves

Hereford born Ellie Goulding grew up listening to folk and pop music, but “electronic music won't leave my brain alone and I have a gravitational pull towards electronic producers,” she says. Her mix of power folk certainly gets the ears tingling on her song Guns and Horses. It’s a call to someone who has been let down; “I wish I could feel it all for you, I wish I could be it all for you, if I could erase the pain then maybe you’d feel the same,” she sings all Bjork like over scissor sharp acoustic guitars and solid electro beats. Another song Wish I Stayed is fifty percent plucked guitars and fifty per cent pulsing synths courtesy of Frankmusik, which lends the song an of the moment radio friendliness.

Not everything Goulding has so far produced has an electronic feel. A demo of another track The Writer, displays simple acoustic vulnerability, as Goulding suggests that she is happy to be in the control of a lover "Why don't you be the artist and make me out of clay? Why don't you be the writer and decide the words I say?". Feminists will be most displeased.

From acoustic chanteusse to almost electro folk diva, Ellie could be a female version of Sam Duckworth of Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, James Yuill with bubbles or Hot Chip without the male nerdiness. It’s still early days and so time will tell what direction Ellie ultimately takes, but besides Frankmusic she has been working with Starsmith and Basement Jaxx, which suggest that rubbery computerisation and stuttering 8 bit studio disjointedness may be the way forward for her. Such electronic footsteps are certainly in keeping with the times.

No comments: