Flowertown - Tourist Language

Karina Gill is really giving Glenn Donaldson a run for his money as the hardest work set of hands in indie rock. Since first picking up a guitar around five years ago we've been blessed with four Cindy LPs and, now with Tourist Language added to the pile, another four Flowertown records. That's one good album every seven and a half month average. Leave some starlight for the rest of us! So distinctive is Gill's voice, where Cindy ends and Flowertown starts is still a somewhat foggy notion, though let's not discount the contributions of Mike Ramos (of Tony Jay fame), who is an equal collaborator here, certainly more so than anyone else is on any of the Cindy records. There does seem to be an effortless understanding between them both, their favouring of quiet and shade dovetailing beautifully, a pair of delicate voices that instinctively know that just a little can be more than enough. The recording quality leans characteristically towards the lo- end of the spectrum, all the more suited to expressing their fragile mystery, not dissimilar to the canny tricks that their friends April Magazine also pull. Though there's just the eight songs across 21 minutes, they get the idea across perfectly, a whispered jangle of minimalist pop that seems to be split between wrapping its troubles in dreams and wrapping its dreams in troubles. Equally enveloping, whichever one gets you first (and if you're lucky, you can have both).