Pale Honey – Pale Honey (Bolero Recordings) reviewed by Dave Franklin

The White Stripes’ stripped down regard for the traditional band format may have lead the way for a wave of imitators but it also opened the doors to some real innovators. Many artists have taken this line of attack through some hipster bandwagoning but for Pale Honey it is the perfect way to present their music. The sparseness of such a delivery means that when they are going for the musical jugular their beats and riffs land uncluttered, uncompromising and unashamedly brutal on the listener, but the same minimalism can also produce some really enchanting moments, gentle refrains that often sit like eyes in a perfect musical storm.

It is this mix of intensity and delicacy that has people bandying around PJ Harvey references but their mercurial music has more in common with bands such as Cat Bear Tree or Flowerpot, the generation who grew up in the shadow of the riot grrrls and have appropriated their angst and creativity and moved the ideas on, a mixture of roaring fire and cool waters, raging storms and blue skies that somehow sits together perfectly.