Artist: Rachael Dadd
Title Of Album: Bite the Mountain
Year Of Release: July 18, 2011
Label: Broken Sound Music
Genre: Folk, Acoustic, Alternative Folk,
Singer-Songwriter
Format: mp3
Quality: 320 Kbps
Total Time: 52:04
Total Size: 124.28 Mb

Artist: Rachael Dadd
Title Of Album: Bite the Mountain
Year Of Release: July 18, 2011
Label: Broken Sound Music
Genre: Folk, Acoustic, Alternative Folk,
Singer-Songwriter
Format: mp3
Quality: 320 Kbps
Total Time: 52:04
Total Size: 124.28 Mb

Tracklist:
1. Balloon
2. Tsubomi
3. Claw And Tooth
4. In The Morning
5. Moth In The Motor
6. The Distance
7. Hedgehog
8. Rice Triangle
9. Time Makers
10. Tower Tower
11. Good Good Light
12. Anchoring
13. The Wind And The Mountain
14. Window

Wth one foot in Bristol and the other in Japan, UK folk artist
Rachael Dadd isn’t one to settle in any place for too long,
and her latest release Bite the Mountain certainly reflects this
love of people and travel.
Released on Broken Sound Records this third LP from the songstress
comprises a rich tapestry of songs composed in various locations
across Japan. Intertwining her love of Japan and her musicial
style, which couples elements of traditional as well as
contemporary folk and minimal composition, Bite the Mountain
features input from fellow Bristol folk artist Rozi Plain, Japanese
composer Aki Tsuyuko and experimental Japanese musician Ichi.
Indeed a great deal of the 14-track LP toys with percussive
elements, and minimal sound that is fleshed out layer upon layer in
a truely organic and original manner. In ‘Rice
Triangle’ you can hear the quaint clipping of chopsticks and
the clinking of china, while ‘Claw and Tooth’
introduces woody brass sounds not so prominent on Moth in the
Motor.
What is perhaps most striking about the sound and feel of this
material is its oscillating familiarity and foreign
otherworldliness. Dadd’s annunciation and phrasings are the
mark of someone travelled, someone at home in two places at once.
One might note the album artwork comprises old sea charts of her
father’s shredded with scraps of Japanese newspaper to create
a collage of a mountain range. It’s a type of bricolage which
parallels with her musical meshing of genres. This familiar,
traditional folk sound blooms over the course of the album and is
so well crafted in its intricies, in its combined use of steel
pans, hushed harmonies and song structures that it creates a
feeling of calm and a sense of precision and ritual in what feels a
very Naturalistic approach to songmaking. Organic, rich and warm it
recalls Joni Mitchell in places, while there is something quite
progressive in Dadd’s command of her instruments and their
players to experiment with sound in a way that is always humbled
and self assured.
Rachael played Cafe Oto on Saturday night to launch the
album’s release. A beautiful gig in a perfect setting she
gained helping hands from Ichi on the steel pan amongst other
instruments, and who too played his own set of eccentric one-man
band loop pedalling, magical mayhem. Kate Stables of This is the
Kit, and one half of Dadd’s side project Whalebone Polly,
offered vocal and instrumental assistance alongside fellow Bristol
songwriter Rozi Plain. Rachael also made great use of the grand
piano in the North London venue, with Moth and the Motor track
‘Table’ a standout of the evening.