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 journey, perhaps retreating from a constantly unfamiliar environment. At times her voice is powerful and confidently expressive and at times a hushed whisper, imparting some secret that might be an invitation into her private world. It’s a light and shade that constantly shifts through the course of these 11 songs. In the shadows there are dappled glimpses and in the brightness, the flares of ideas haze and you are left blinking, pulling the musical horizon into focus. Right from the get go Exist (Beyond My Wildest Dreams) opens with urgent ripples, the squall of treated guitar feedback, but as the drums pound to herald a female chorus that sounds almost mystical, the whole thing just drops away to Jo’s whisper, “Never beyond my wildest dreams, because they don’t exist.” The choruses rise and fall with almost dervish intensity and the instrumental bed maintains a logic entirely of its own. It’s a thrilling set up, although the coda is almost submarine as it fades and shifts into Pick Me Up, a track that hints at Kate Bush via Roisin Murphy or Alison Goldfrapp, but is like everything else here, entirely its own entity. The comparisons are only ever signposts and meant as complementary, but it’s actually, very hard to nail any direct similarity with anyone else. Jo’s voice seems to offer surprise after surprise. There It Is starts off all Nordic-jazz-cool, but the chorus soars, strong and pushing at the stratospheric. How Beautiful also follows a similar trajectory before Deeper (Glorious) returns us to the introspective, finally breaking free of its tether with its sonorous refrain. Knowing that the album has been some time in the making, it’s easy to see great care has been lavished, fitting this most intricate of sonic jigsaws together. Vocal and instrumental nuances have clearly been worked through, but the real skill has been in knowing when to leave things alone, or maybe even when to leave things out. It’s Jo’s voice after all, with its range, its strength, its vulnerability, that will keep you coming back. As surely you must. The devil is known for inhabiting the details, but there are some glimpses of heaven here.
Where we're all from….
(red dots are visits, flags are people on right now)
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 rein to her voice while exploring the possibilities of electronica alongside fuller textured backings and occasional more delicate acoustic passages. It’s a brave step to take, and its alternation of intimate empathy with lavish canvases and more strident experimentation will doubtless scare away those used to more traditional forms of expressiveness – but that would be a pity, for Jo’s work deserves to be treated with an open mind. Although at times her delivery can variously recall Imogen Heap, Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, P.J. Harvey and even Regina Spektor, Jo’s actually quite an individual singer whose voice is hard to pin down, and though some of Jo’s sonic experiments might recall the recent albums of Rose Kemp the innate optimism in Jo’s lyrics is a world away from the latter’s goth-poetic shadowings. Jo’s mixed parentage and whirlwind world-travelling upbringing are both reflected in the field-recordings from Cambodia which are threaded between the songs, and refracted in the songs themselves in their kaleidoscopic myriad of influences. The genuinely eclectic, obstinately complex multicultural bazaar that is the world of today is represented in the at times overwhelming music Jo uses to clothe her songs, from the insistent Gabrielesque pounding African beats of How Beautiful to the cheekily swooning jazzy reeds of All In Adoration, the fractured breathiness of Exist, the tentative but ultimately jubilant quest of Deeper (Glorious) and the obscure, enigmatic, multi-layered intimacy of Paradise. Some of the most strikingly memorable tracks are the more intimately or acoustically scored, like the swansong There It Is and the drifting, gamelan-inspired Mekong Song. Winter Is Over starts like a primitive old-time waltz but soon acquires a They Shoot Horses opulent decadence, and the closing Think Of Me stays just the right side of whimsical in its eccentricity, whereas Liathach errs in the other direction, disappointing in its ponderous prog-like posturing, too smooth to evoke the rough grandeur of the majestic and terrifying Torridonian mountain. All through Gown, I’m amazed at how much Jo is able to conjure from simple means and creative programming, and she gets plenty of currency from around a dozen well-chosen musician-collaborators. Brilliant and attractive package design too, by the way.
“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 around the globe. She listened carefully and now tells the stories people shared with her. Listening to Gown takes time, because it goes so deep. This an album that reveals bits and pieces you have missed the first time around. Or the second, the third … Hat’s off to Jon Cotton who made sure that the production was crystal clear.”
http://blogger.xs4all.nl/werksman/archive/2009/04/17/466720.aspx
“[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 large – ranging from grief and global warming to the mountains of Scotland and the long-legged beetles of Kuwait. ‘Gown’ is a captivating and remarkable listen which includes warm sentiments for all her varied composition styles. From the breathtakingly atmospheric ‘There It Is’ which encompasses heartfelt guitar rifts and smooth bass lines that glide gracefully with Jo’s unusual vocal melodies to the uplifting ‘Pick Me Up’ showcasing a powerful vocal introduction that runs along harmonic synth sounds, building the climaxes of the song at a pace
which is just mesmerizing. With standard underlying sounds topped with mixtures of brass, reed, synth and string instruments panned effectively to produce an overall unique stereo image, it is no surprise that Jo Hamilton has been likened to Kate Bush and Annie Lennox, she will also strike a chord with fans of more adventurous contemporary female artists such as Imogen Heap and Regina Spektor.
At this time of recession and great uncertainty, Jo wants to remind us what it is to wonder at the world and she certainly achieves this, her quiet composure commands attention,when she sings it evokes a feeling of sudden calmness, a break from the frenetic energy of the daily grind.”
http://www.society-today.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=245:film-music-reviews
