David Thomas Broughton

David Thomas Broughton's off-kilter folk is all about the slow-burn; coaxing melodies and oddly gorgeous vocals from a shuffling music box of acoustic guitars, looping pedals and bargain-bin drum machines. The result is (predictably) tooth-achingly gorgeous. He has been unceremoniously dumped into the 'freak-folk' enclosure and in doing so shows up the meagre offerings traditionally proffered under this soft-centered appellation. Taking handsome dollops of Nick Drake, John Fahey and Antony and the Johnsons, Broughton's quixotic touch is writ large above all his compositions. Broughton leads us in through some tip-toeing guitar loops that gradually unfurl into a pink-hued vocal that recalls Antony and the Johnson's in its stark, alien delivery, whilst coming across as appealingly naïve, representing that fabled song-writing territory where the innovative does not overshadow the enjoyable - but instead coexists. Or something.


David Thomas Broughton’s talent has garnered praise with the passing years. This doesn’t come as a surprise. The way Broughton merges endless processed guitar loops with his own and very personal voice –something between Odetta and Tim Buckley- throws light upon a unique sound. After astonishing audiences at the most recent edition of fave Spanish festivals Primavera Sound or Tanned Tin, Acuarela introduces an exclusive mini-album that the English musician has recorded with Leeds experimental group 7 Hertz. Layer after layer of sound, David Thomas Broughton has defined himself as a name to keep in mind, song after song, test after test. Challenging the limits of his own music, this Leeds singer songwriter has toyed at stretching a singular discourse bound to the well-worn parameters of folk and electronics, combining influences and just by following intuition and taste, enveloping it all with a warm and velvet voice. Without a doubt challenge has been a constant in his career. The Complete Guide To Insufficiency (Birdwar/Plug research, 2005) was a debut aimed at demonstrating Broughton’s live performance, recorded in one sole take in a church and barely intervening through mixing, one could even hear the sound of pedals being changed and other details that could only be appreciated in a live show. This atmosphere that suits the record so well, somewhere between narcotic and chaotic, has accompanied his next effort It’s In There Somewhere (Birdwar, 2007), though channeled through song format as we know it. 7 Hertz are a Leeds band dedicated to improvisation within a strange mixture of folk, classical, jazz and any other label that you can slap the term free on. David and the band hardly had time to greet each other before embarking on a recording session in a cold church in Leeds on a winter afternoon (a scene much like the one Broughton’s first record was drawn in). Every song would enjoy only one take, so there would never be any previous rehearsals between the parties involved. Throughout the first part of the album David performed a song he had in mind, around this the band built walls of sound. But for the second part of the record was created as it was performed for the first time, improvising lyrics and casting vocals towards the temple’s vaults, creating and unimaginable acoustic. The result is a record full of strength and experimentation where sound contracts and expands, always floating, carried over currents towards the impossible whirlpool that is “River Outlet”, the twenty-two minutes with which the session ends, where Broughton and 7 Hertz shyly fade, stretching their music until the very instant in which it separates..