Jo Hamilton - Reviews

Caroline Sullivan - The Guardian

Sat, 11 Sep 2010 14:03:00 -0400

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, Gown, but she’s made of much more ethereal stuff than “Jo Hamilton” would suggest.

The Björk/Sigur Rós comparisons are not far off the mark at this gig in a pub basement. A similar unearthly, unclassifiable oddness is present in her, but she could have also mentioned Tori Amos and the Sundays’ Harriet Wheeler: Birmingham-based Hamilton has the same capacity to transfix with her breathy voice, and to speak volumes in a couple of lines. It was fitting that, along with a guitar, she played an otherworldly, keyboard-like instrument that produced ripples of sound when she swished her hand above it. “How does that work?” a punter asked. “It’s magic,” she said crisply.

Long hair pinned up and a pint of Guinness at her elbow, Hamilton navigated through Gown with a light touch. A drummer, keyboardist and bassist sketched out an ambient backdrop that left acres of space for her hazy vocals – which have a residue of Celtic pronunciation from a childhood spent in the north of Scotland.

It didn’t matter what she was singing about: the sweetness of her tone in Winter Is Over said enough, as did her agitation in Release Us. Think of Me, a duet between voice and electronic drum-pad, had an end-of-the-affair wistfulness, which lingered until the encore All in Adoration turned things around with a circus-like melody. Singular and unforgettable, Hamilton is quite a find.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/apr/11/jo-hamilton-review

Simmy Richman - The Independent on Sunday

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 04:21:00 -0400

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.”

Andy Gill - The Independent

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:59:00 -0400

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 along with her classically trained strings, synths and guitars into miasmic, oceanic mixes that variously recall the likes of Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush and Björk. “Exist” is an arresting opening to the album, with a chopped-up guitar collage and Hamilton’s layered veils of Tim Buckley-esque wordless vocals; it’s followed by “Pick Me Up”, where dulcimer and violin colouration tints an itchy electric guitar riff. Elsewhere, “Paradise” crystallises from overheard mumblings into a seductive samba. The most routine arrangement is “All In Adoration”, funk-soul so light it almost floats away; but all the songs are infused with the breathy sultriness of Hamilton’s vocals, her seductive strains promoting the attitude of songs like “Pick Me Up” and “There It Is”: “Climbing into the future/ Leaving a wake of life/Fresh ideas for the picking/Throw them seeds behind”. An absorbing experience.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/album-jo-hamilton-gown-poseidon-1774998.html

Nigel Williamsons – Uncut

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:59:00 -0400

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 me Up’ could work in simple vocal / guitar format. Instead Hamilton and producer Jon Cotton have layered them with electronics and intriguing samples. She’s got an amazing voice to, that can glide like KD Lang (‘Think Of Me’) or essay Bjork weirdness (‘Paradise’).

Sacha Whitmarsh - Rock n Reel:

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:59:00 -0400

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 the way. Beautifully packaged, Dave Neale’s artwork alone warrants an in-hand purchase over a download, completed by the inner sleeve’s stunning photography of bracken, that much overlooked blanket of English woodland.

During the journey, Hamilton returns to her Scottish origins with two of the album’s best tracks, the powerful ‘Liathach’ and ‘Think Of Me’, which begins as a tender greeting and builds to an uninhibited, celebratory, homecoming cry.

Jo Hamilton will inevitably draw comparisons with artists like Kate Bush in that her work is just so fearlessly unique. Gown is a remarkable album; heady and addictive. There are programmed sequences, sampled voices and atmospheres; beautiful classical-guitar that opens ‘There It Is’; vast, soaring vocals; building strings. The sleeve notes credit David Picking for drums, wineglasses and Brazil nuts. What’s not to like?

Phil Sutcliffe - MOJO Jo Hamilton: Gown ★★★★ Exotic Scot mixes...

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:58:00 -0400

Phil Sutcliffe - MOJO

Jo Hamilton: Gown ★★★★

Exotic Scot mixes gamelan, psychedlia, string quartets and sensuality………

Hamilton grew up in the Highlands, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and hoovered up the skills and instincts which enable her to assemble classical viola, ancient Asian tuned percussion, computer-keyboard walls of sound and more with imaginative allure and disciplined coherence. From the opening track, Exist (Beyond My Wildest Dreams), the twangy guitars, distortions and swirly ambients often recall the warm grandeur of a yogic George Harrison around 1970- there’s a lurchy-rhythmed Ringo on drums too (producer Jon Cotton). But she also updates the hippytude to touch on the extreme vocal tones and bare-tomassive leaps beloved of Kate Bush and Bjork. Hamilton’s lyrics are much fuzzier affairs than theirs, though. Airy thoughts like “How Beautiful is his love for you” and “I will meet paradise” drift on the blurry line between sex and spirituality, but the sound makes sense of it.

Robin Valk - Radio To Go

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:20:20 -0400

“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

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:20:00 -0400

“[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), cobwebby jazz soul folk (The Bush infused Pick Me Up), airy Brill building balladry (There It Is), the panoramic rhythms of African plains (How Beautiful), and the melting icicle soulful ebb and flow fragility of Deeper (Glorious). Then there’s the Weill cabaret shades to All In Adoration with its puttering percussion beats and woodwind trills, the classical hymnal majesty of Liathach’s choral beauty and, drawing on her time in Cambodia, the intoxicatingly hushed seductiveness that is Mekong Song.

She’s releasing Winter Is Over a a trailer single, a playfully catchy pizzicato plucked strings waltzer that suggests a sort of Oriental Bjork by way of an arthouse 40s Broadway musical. But it’s the closing Think Of Me that’s the real deceptive killer, a windchime, musical box Gaelic lullaby that floats you away on a pillow of clouds and twinkling night stars.
Sophisticated, sensuous, complex, layered and utterly beguiling, there’s a song here called Paradise. A better description of the album would be hard to conjure.”

http://www.netrhythms.com/reviewsh.html#johamilton

www.themusiccritic.co.uk

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:19:00 -0400

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 track here, despite the addition of guitar from blues genius Andy Gunn, but this is soon forgotten as Pick Me Up kicks in. An anthemic exercise in ambient chilled out dance that is perfect for watching the Ibizian sunset.

Hamilton has been compared with Kate Bush and Annie Lennox, but there is nothing on this album as remotely self indulgent or overbearing as those two. What we get is something more akin to Little Boots or Imogen Heap. Experimentation without being pretentious.

This is an album of huge promise. Tracks like All in Adoration and Deeper (Glorious) and Think Of Me shows she has a understanding of using melody and space in perfect harmony.

To these ears Mekong Song stands out amongst a hugely impressive set of self penned songs. The sparse arrangement allowing Hamilton’s voice to shine.

Not quite the finished article, but damn near perfect.

http://www.themusiccritic.co.uk/2009/07/jo-hamilton-gown.html

Lisa Torem - www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:19:00 -0400

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 CD of Hamilton’s original music, mixed and produced by Jon Cotton, does exemplify what I think it has set out to achieve. It is an elegant whirlwind of colour, imagery and imaginative musical choreography drawing from the influence of world music. Unorthodox and unusual instruments appear on various tracks – wine glasses, that Indonesian staple: the Gamelan, appalachian dulcimer and - holy cow – even brazil nuts!

The opener, ‘Exist’, has Hamilton unveiling a breathy delivery. A recapitulated lyric from it, “I’m drowning”, appears in ‘Pick Me Up’ which is the only track I would say recalls R & B. Here, the aforementioned dulcimer is paired with violin for an extra pungent repast. ‘There It Is’ is a warm, rosy ballad and it’s here that David Picking adds that bouquet-ish splash of flavour with the wine glasses and brazil nuts. The optimistic “looking ahead to what’s around the corner” syncs up well, too.

‘How Beautiful’ features the Enigma Quartet but is misleading as it’s a sombre melody with uber-positive lyrics. ‘Deeper (Glorious)’ also belongs in that ambiguous “camp” – however, McGuire/Carter channel highly-energizing stealth and Livermore and Happernik convey a discordant elegance through production nuance. Hamilton’s angelic voice crescendos blissfully as it closes. Nordic rumblings listed under instrumentation? Why, not? ‘Paradise’ recalls the warmth of Norah Jones and Hamilton’s voice embues great emotion. The result is a pretty, hand-holding samba.

The quiet doesn’t last, however, as the teasing cacaphony of saxes and clarinets with pop-scat phrase play out during ‘All in Adoration’. For something completely different, ‘Liathach’ is a love song cloaked in an undulating confessional piano-driven ballad with cunning lyrics like, “wishful thinking – there’s more than that..” Hamilton’s extensive field recordings - which she cultivated in Cambodia - yielded the sensorial lyrics depicting the landscape she discovered in ‘Mekong’ - from “lush green brushes” and “there are houses floating” to “everything lives on the river I speed down.”

“Snow is melting away from here, climbs the mountains and disappears” and “lime-green, black-orange and ruby-red” then culminates in ‘Winter is Over’. It is set to a Brechtian, carnival-like arrangement. This is another, almost uncategorical mood piece. The closer, ‘Think of Me’ underscores the line, “think of me when the light is fading.” The long-awaited, celestial wine glasses along with piano and music box add sheer, unpredictable whimsy.

‘Gown’ is a lovely ensemble effort. It’s a little difficult to exactly know in which frame this picture should be hammered to the wall. But, it’s a joyous picture, nevertheless.

http://www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk/MagSitePages/Review.aspx?id=6649

Simon Holland - PropergandaMagazine

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:18:12 -0400

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.

David Kidman - www.folkandroots.co.uk

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:18:00 -0400

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.

http://www.folkandroots.co.uk/reviews10.html#johamilton

Hans Werksman - Here Comes the Flood blog

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:17:00 -0400

“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

Nishwa Ashraf - Society Today magazine

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:17:00 -0400

“[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