free music friday: anja mccloskey

Exciting news for us here at Wears The Trousers as our longtime contributor Anja McCloskey and one-sixth of Southampton band Haunted Stereo prepares to release her debut solo EP, Turn-Turn-Turn, due September 3 on Sotones Records. After years of creating studio magic for the likes of Katy Carr, Ana Silvera, Helen McCookerybook and The Irrepressibles, she’s finally stepping out on her own.

An accordionist since the age of five, the German–American’s beloved instrument is all over these tracks, heaving with sadness in the wordless ‘Decision’, curling like thick smoke beneath the airy vocal of ‘Newton’, and weaving gracefully through the overlaid melodies of ‘Stephanie Part II’. Anja’s distinctive high yet earthy tone combines a folk appeal with classical sensibilities – “baroque antifolk”, as the label puts it – and she’s no slouch on the piano or clarinet either.

We’re pleased as punch to give you an exclusive first listen to preview track ‘Instigate It’. A loping guitar-and-accordion melody starts things off, setting the mood as the track broadens out into a joyful chorus boosted by the backing vocals of her Haunted Stereo bandmates Lewis Ford and Andy Harris. Beautiful stuff.

Tracklist:
01 Decision
02 Instigate It
03 Newton
04 Ivory
05 Stephanie Part II

FREE MP3: Anja McCloskey, ‘Instigate It’

visit Anja on Myspace

Written by: Alan Pedder

Tags: anja mccloskey, haunted stereo, turn-turn-turn EP

This entry was posted on Friday, June 25th, 2010 at 4:05 pm and is filed under All A/V, free music friday. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.