Common Tongues are an indie-folk five-piece currently residing in Brighton, UK. The group emerged in early 2010, and quickly found themselves high profile dates at festivals including The Great Escape and Secret Garden Party. 2011 is already shaping up quite nicely for the band, who have another string of festival dates set up for the summer, and most importantly they have their debut single set for release on 23rd May through Something Nothing Records.
Common Tongues’ debut single Jumping Ships sees the band example their perfectly formed vibe of southern Americana meets British folk revival. Critics have described the group’s sound as a cross between Arcade Fire and Bon Iver, but in truth their music for me exhibits a more similar sound to Stornoway; instead of sombre and contemplative, Common Tongues music contains a buoyant, positive, and ultimately heart-warming feel that is subtly uplifting.
Common Tongues’ instrumentation is a fairly traditional folk set up, with lots of beautifully rounded and soft acoustic guitars, piano and simple percussion alongside interesting violin techniques. The violin is indeed a particular highlight of Common Tongues’ work – sometimes it is very grounded in trad-folk techniques, sometimes it sounds more eastern European, and at times the violin even has hints of cinematic classical music.
With their clever lyrics and subtly fantastic instrumentation, Common Tongues are the most interesting and promising new folk band I have heard this year, and I highly anticipate their next single release.
See this at http://www.morethanthemusic.co.uk/the-next-best-thing/5395/
