Hiatus and Shura: A sure thing...

It’s not every Monday we are graced with a free download of such beauteous proportions.


I first became aware of Hiatus and Shura when I was doing the Breakfast Show on Amazing Radio and had Cyrus (aka Hiatus) as my Artist of the Week.  There was a mutual respect, I of his journo background and incredible musical skills, me of my minty-coloured jumper and sensible question-asking ability. I can be very sensible you know. At no point in this conversation did, “Hey man! Would you rather have a fingers for pimples or noses for nipples?" Phew! *Wipes brow*

As for the music, I instantly fell in love with the ethereal, other-worldly vocals from Shura and organic, hypnotic production style of Hiatus, a combination which has been described as ‘night folk’.  It’s often a bore denoting an arbitrary genre to a new act and I don’t usually agree with it, but with this one, I actually see it.

Lionesque, this new track they are offering for nothing to fans online, is a song that evokes in my mind a host of earthy images, and all under the cover of darkness, or a duvet while your Sennheiser’s (other headphones apply) shut out all the grey outside.  It's particularly grey today.

I shut my eyes for a second, I might add I am sat in my trackies in my East London gaff beside a steaming bowl of chicken soup (I’m snotty, have succumbed to the disease every other mofo on the tube is carrying around this time of year and am feeling sorry for myself).  I press play. 

Forgive my limited and somewhat 90s reference points but… night swimming in a far off land (though NOT the time I had to awkwardly entertain 'the mate' of a French lad my chum was promptly copping off with in the moonlight sea in India), swirling plankton illuminated like in The Beach, a night drive through wild country roads after an argument, being far from home like little Max in Dave Eggers’ version of The Wild Things, animals fighting for survival in harsh terrain like what you see in Planet Earth, or the heartbreak of a love lost (for some reason Joey mourning not living with Chandler in Friends springs to mind, you know the scene in front of a 'rainy' window/water feature, but I block it out in favour of something far more profound, modern day lovers torn apart in Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet, Crazy/Beautiful, The Notebook! Pah!). 

I am certain none of these formed the basic inspiration for this stunner of a song but this is what it conjures for me on this day. Give it a listen. It’s such a gem and we were so happy they played for us at Cat Lovers last month. It deserves 3 minutes and 41 seconds of your day.

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