September 2010
14 posts
Caroline Sullivan - The Guardian
Jo Hamilton: live performance at the Slaughtered Lamb, London, 11th April 2010 ★★★★
Jo Hamilton needs a new name – the one she’s got is too sensible for an artist who says she sounds like “Björk and Sarah McLachlan singing Robbie Burns, backed by Sigur Rós”. It’s probably too late to change it now she’s begun to amass four-star reviews for her emotive debut album,...
Simmy Richman - The Independent on Sunday
Jo Hamilton: Gown ★★★★
“‘Gown’ is the sort of album that will spread from music lover to music lover purely by word of mouth - it’s adult, but never pretentious; slick, but never sickly. In a world of La Roux, Little Boots and Lady Gaga, this is an unashamedly grown-up record that dares to step out of the boxes we have reserved for our female singer-songwriters.”
Sacha Whitmarsh - Rock n Reel:
Gown ★★★★
(POSEIDON)
Jo Hamilton had a nomadic childhood, living in six countries across Europe and Asia, ranging from near isolation in the Scottish Highlands to as far afield as Cambodia, to where she later returned, making recordings that eventually worked their way into songs now on Gown. This album is a similar journey; crammed with the multitude of global influences she has gathered along...
Nigel Williamsons – Uncut
Album: Jo Hamilton, Gown (Poseidon) ★★★★
Surprising second album from classically trained Scottish ex-folkie.
A spell with Ashley Hutching’s Albion band suggested Jo Hamilton might be another winsome Britfolk girl but Gown reveals her as more Goldfrapp than a Sandy Denny wannabe. The inherent strength of her writing make it easy to hear how songs such as ‘Exist” and ‘Pick...
Andy Gill - The Independent
Album: Jo Hamilton, Gown (Poseidon) ★★★★
Scottish chamber-folk artist Jo Hamilton spent a peripatetic childhood shuttling around the Middle East, Cambodia and Sri Lanka, during which time she clearly soaked up a range of musical influences.
It’s a habit she’s never shaken off, with parts of Gown either written or recorded in Jamaica, Cambodia and elsewhere, the results stirred...
Robin Valk - Radio To Go
“This is storming stuff, intelligent, uncompromising material, gentle, muscular, and deeply appealing.Hamiton is a passionate, elegant singer and writer. Her work deserves your attention, and I’m pretty sure it’s going to get just that; if not today, then tomorrow. “
Mike Davies - Netrhythms
“[Jo’s] album has been a long time coming, but Gown is more than worth the wait. She’s been likened to Bush, Harvey and Lennox as well as Regina Spektor and Imogen Heap, and while you’ll hear the comparisons, she’s still very much her own voice. The album is an exotic musical journey, brushing the multicultural world wings of dreamy celestial pop tinged with Gaelic mist (Exist),...
www.themusiccritic.co.uk
Jo Hamilton: Gown ★★★★
A classically trained musician and member of The Rainbow Chasers, this is the debut album from the Birmingham based lass. With Gown, Hamilton manages to blur the boundaries between folk and electronica with consummate ease. The result is an album full of atmosphere that is rich, warm and often stunning.
The album opener, Exist (Beyond My Wildest Dreams) is the weakest...
Lisa Torem - www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk
World-traveller Jo Hamilton, singer and multi-instrumentalist , has lived in Kuwait, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and her native Scotland. Her artistry has been likened to Regina Spektor, Kate Bush and Annie Lennox.
Hamilton’s debut, ‘Gown’, seems to waver between the embracingly outstretched arms of the Hindu God Ganesh, Eastern mysticism and Bollywood enthuse. This eleven track...
Simon Holland - PropergandaMagazine
Jo Hamilton arrives at Gown via an uncommon personal history that is at the heart of this exotic and enchanting music. Born into a semi-nomadic family, with roots in Jamaica and Kenya, but spending her youth globe trotting from a remote base in northern Scotland has undoubtedly cast a free spirited, enquiring mind. She appears alive to every possibility, but also paradoxically on an inward...
David Kidman - www.folkandroots.co.uk
Readers will doubtless be approaching this singer’s debut solo recording from the perspective of her recent stint with Ashley Hutchings’ Rainbow Chasers, in which context she proved herself both as a stunning singer and a rather creative classically-trained violist. Here on Gown, though, Jo shows she has many more strings to her bow (so to speak), on a set of self-penned songs that give fullest...
Nishwa Ashraf - Society Today magazine
“[Jo Hamilton’s] debut album, entitled ‘Gown’ is a collective of earthy, soothing, uplifting songs charged with emotion. Melodies that can only be described as expansive lullabies reflect our hopes, our glories and our tragedies, Jo draws from the experiences of her nomadic lifestyle which influence her naturalistic lyrics that are filled with observations of the world both small and...
Hans Werksman - Here Comes the Flood blog
“Ready for a journey to fairy land? Pick Jo Hamilton as your musical guide. She is a multi-instrumentalist and programmer who sings like the missing link between Annie Lennox and Allison Moyet. She started the songs for her album Gown with field recordings in Korea (childrens voices can be heard in the coda of Deeper (Glorious) and she contined to tape voices and sounds during her travels...