One voice and a guitar; a format that is both a blessing and a curse. Armed with these two tools anyone and everyone can claim to be a singer-songwriter and at the moment everyone seems to be, with the result being a musical mudslide, an avalanche of would be troubadours vying for public attention. The up side of this scenario is that some of the most timeless, gimmick free and beautiful music ever made has been created with such a simple template. The secret, it would seem, would be rather than  find new boundaries to push or create clever genre fusions  instead to just embrace the simplicity of the format and merely strive to do it better than the competition, something that on the strength of this single, James Robinson achieves with ease.
As the front man with Two Spot Gobi, Robinson lead a bunch of funky-indie surfer dudes through some easily accessible, fun in the sun, style pop. Here the vibe is more of the midnight beach campfire watching the burning embers, the stars and the grey waves crash on a grey shore. That was the music of the day; this is the music of the night. A simple tune that grows not in complexity but through naturally evolved layering, a shuffled beat here, skittering guitars there and the wonderful warmth of soaring yet distant harmonies. A wonderful evocation of the summer days gone to keep you warm as the year heads towards its cold conclusion.
[…] Start a Fire  –  James Robinson (single review for Dancing About Architecture) […]