Gig review: Smoke Fairies, Pleasance, Edinburgh

CURRENTLY on tour promoting their second album Blood Speaks, the Smoke Fairies – aka Sussex-born singer/guitarists Katherine Blamire and Jessica Davies, backed here by a three-piece band on viola, keyboards, bass and drums – pulled a more than respectable crowd for a chilly Monday night, even if their relentlessly dark-hued material and somewhat timorous stage demeanour aren’t exactly geared to warm an atmosphere.

Smoke Fairies

Pleasance

Star rating: * * *

Their music continues to blend swampy, Southern Gothic influences from a formative sojourn in New Orleans with shades of classic late 60s/early 70s rock and the dulcet pastoral tones of English folk – which unfortunately remains, for the most part, a more interesting palette on paper (and, to be fair, on record) than it does in the flesh. There was an undeniably compelling and distinctive vocal chemistry between the pair, who jointly spanned the range from contralto to soprano – Davies covering the lower end, sometimes with echoes of June Tabor’s woody, shadowy eloquence; Blamire alternating classical precision and vivid rawness in the upper register – and together created a rich array of sharp/sweet harmonic alignments and juxtapositions. But while there was rather more energy in evidence than on their last Edinburgh visit, the songs’ emotional spectrum only extended intermittently from brooding to anguished, and their dearth of memorable melodies was exacerbated by largely unintelligible lyrics. The incantatory, percussive starkness of the new album’s title track was a welcome exception, reinforcing the potential contained in the duo’s singing.