Winter Villains – February
The name of the album offers insight into a record that has been heavily influenced by the seasons. It's February the hardest cold in all the seasons in Wales where winter villains originate. The fragility of the season, the sparse landscapes of the countryside and the ark oppressing nights that leave us uplifted and comforted around warm fires during night times are the undercurrents of this release.
Winter Villains are Josef Prygodzicz and Faye Gibson, a Cardiff based duo that formed together on the back of an idea that was conceived in the cold Welsh winters of 2009/10. Based in Cardiff, they released early demos of tracks such as Patterns and Icebergs and they earned some acclaim from Jen long of BBC Radio 1 who described them as 'Beautiful... Soaring... Multi-instrumental... Indie Pop'.
Just like winter, the Villains keep their sound sparse; slowly building into something warmer and with just enough going on still at all times to keep you intrigued. Thorns is a beautiful track that lands somewhere between the most mellow of Elbow records and the the lightest Leisure society vocal track. Debut single Moon has the fireside carol singing feel, it snowballs from humble beginnings, adding more and more before falling back to nothing Patterns introduces the cold winter winds, its ethereal and otherworldly.
February may seem an odd month to write an album about, but what Winter Villains have produced is a breath of cold winter air. The music is fresh and original and very absorbing. There is a very visible Elbow comparison to some of the tracks and in particular Patterns but this is meant as the highest of praise. Last year Elbow dominated our summer, offering soundtracks to the Olympics and headlining many of the best festivals in Europe. Maybe Winter Villains will be our soundtrack to the colder nights of 2013. I'd have no complaints if they were; they've created a beauty.