A genteel fierce panda one sheet

The Act: WOODEN ARMS

The Release: ‘LOST IN YOUR OWN HOME’

The Format: DIGITAL SINGLE

The Release Date: SEPTEMBER 1ST 2017

The Label: fierce panda

The iTunes Link: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/lost-in-your-own-home-single/id1218272793

The Truth: WOODEN ARMS are a self-diagnosed “genre-fluid” quintet from Norwich who consist of Alex Carson (vocals / piano), Alex MacKenzie (drums / bass), Jeff Smith (guitar / trumpet), Connie Chatwin (violin) and Fifi Homan (cello). Those flowing genres are alternative, classical and trip-hop music, as you might expect from a string-enriched collective emboldened by the rhythmic sensibilities of Portishead blended with the ethereal melodies of Sigur Ros.

‘Lost In Your Own Home’ is taken from Wooden Arms’ forthcoming sophomore album ‘Trick Of The Light’, due for release in October, and which sees them moving away from the folk-orientated melodies of debut LP ‘Tide’ to focus instead on darker, more contemporary sounds. If their earnest combination of crushed melody and soaring strings sees Wooden Arms aim for ever-higher heights then ‘Lost In Your Own Home’ is a prime example of their elegantly cultured work, starting as it does with a nod to a deep shade of (the) Blue Nile before building to an outpouring of lushly reverberating orchestration.

Happily, ‘Lost In Your Own Home’ is a concise little amble through the mind of the once-21 year-old Alex Carson first experimenting with psychotropic drugs in a confined space after unceremoniously leaving the familial home due to religious differences. Carson was living in a 10 foot by 10 foot by 10 foot room. A perfect cube, in other words…in a converted mental hospital in central Norwich: the perfect time and place to experiment with psychedelics, obviously.

“My 21st birthday was a culmination of a lot of things,” sighs the singer. “I remember being haunted by shadows at night, not quite knowing what was reality and what was a dream. I wasn’t on quite that self-destructive a path as the scenario suggests, it was far more middle class and civil than that. But this song epitomises the banality of real life mixed with my juvenile attempts at trying to come to terms with a massive life change…whilst also taking drugs and losing my mind.”

The song features an off-kilter 7/4 time signature (think the bassline from Pink Floyd’s ‘Money’ and you’re on the right path), which was honed by drummer Alex when both Alexes sat at a piano and used four hands to make one piano part. It’s a song which doesn’t make much sense on paper with its unresolved, asymmetric rhythm tripping you up at every turn. Yet it feels natural and organic and culminates in a thick percussive crescendo that epitomises the chaotic lyrical content, which would seem to pretty much sum up Wooden Arms right now. Now go catch some orchestral light right here:

JULY 27: CAMBRIDGE FOLK FESTIVAL Cherry Hinton Hall
AUGUST 30: LONDON ST PANCRAS OLD CHURCH (with River Runs)
DECEMBER 3: HALDERN Haldern Pop Bar
DECEMBER 4: BERLIN Pfefferberg Theater
DECEMBER 5: HAMBURG Prinzenbar
DECEMBER 6: COLOGNE Yuca
DECEMBER 13: CAMBRIDGE Portland Arms
DECEMBER 14: NORWICH Open
DECEMBER 16: LONDON The Lexington

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