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Review from Comes with a Smile

Peril Hill - Scream at the Jackdaw, Make Him Stop
The Feather Gatherers - S/T

The first two releases from new Sheffield label Singing Knives offer up some of the finest players and songwriters in the British new folk scene.
Peril Hill, who feature members of fellow folkies Deerpark have delivered a
softly strummed and sung mini album full of Ali Roberts meets Iron and
Wine loveliness. Beautifully packaged in hand screened cardboard, 'Scream at
the Jackdaw' showcases band leader Mark Gardner's subtle, gentle vocals and
strong, inspired songwriting. Though perhaps a little too sombre in
places, with an emphasis on minor keys and blood drenched lyrics, the
instrumentation of viola, harmonium and guitar along with sensitive
harmony vocals courtesy of Fiona Kennedy, manages to transform the songs from potential dirginess to sweeping, lovelorn sweetness. Opener 'Siren' is
perhaps the standout, along with the beautiful banjo led 'Vapours in
August', helping to make Peril Hill's debut the kind of sensitive singer
songwriter set that would have the new breed of urban hippies drooling.
The Feather Gatherers debut single is a collaboration between sometime
Peril Hill alumni Jonathan Marshall and nu-folk darling Sharon Kraus.Two
songs of fragile, wintery blues, it is a perfect companion piece to Peril Hill's
album and a great example of how less is quite often more.