Wintercoats - New Waves

When producing orchestral pop music the danger is that it is so easy to overdo things; throw in another dramatic string crescendo here and a trumpet blast there and soon the bombastic assault on the ears becomes just a swollen sound of nothingness. It takes both confidence and skill to take classical influence and use them to subtly produce something that is both sensitive but strong. James Wallace aka Wintercoats has managed to perfect this art on his two releases – the Cathedral EP out last May and another track Spend This Day which he uploaded last month, both of which are available for free from the Wintercoats Bandcamp page.

This Australian violinist creates tender, airy pieces of music that are perfect for those quiet introvert moments in the day. His compositions take looped cells of instrumentation and combine them with hazy floaty vocals, the resultant being something light and cotton wool like; these songs may be slight but that’s not a criticism, it’s very much a positive. Wintercoats – rather like James Blake and The XX know that sometimes less is more. Unlike these two acts though, beats are not essential and his songs are more leftfield - you're unlikely to hear Wintercoats cropping up on daytime BBC Radio 1.

In Breaking More Waves home country of the UK very little attention has been paid to Wintercoats yet. We’re hoping that as the months progress this will change, but if it doesn’t then his music can be our little secret, can’t it? Wrap yourselves up in Wintercoats soothing restraint and feel a warm musical glow.

Windmill - Wintercoats by wintercoatsmusic

Unbearable Thinking - Wintercoats by wintercoatsmusic