Album Review: Reichenbach Falls - 'Reports Of Snow'

While we’re yet to see snow this winter, Reichenbach Falls’ Reports of it set the scene in a stunning fashion. Just as (fairly) recent efforts by Andy Burrows and Kate Bush have paid homage to the white stuff – creating atmospheric LPs leaving the listener with everything but the common cold – RF’s debut conjures up those first feelings of seeing the flakes fall, before taking the listener on a journey in a concept-album sort of manner.

Fronted by Abe Davies (for whom this was initially intended to be a solo album), ‘Reports Of Snow’ is an often moody, but more often moving collection of Americana-tinged, soft folk pieces; taking into account his time spent in Canada and Wales. Partly written in Scotland and North America and recorded in Oxford, it’s an album that’s covered elements from those various destinations, which have melted, filtered and become the pure, clear finished product.

While “folk” has become a cliché of its former self, with thanks to a revival that has seen the banjo replacing the air guitar on sticky town-dancefloors, Davies (backed by a band which includes former Cornershop drummer Nick Simms) returns the authenticity, with echoes of indie, rock and pop thrown in too. ‘Drink & Drive’ sets the scene with delicate layers of piano and acoustic guitar, but the combination works even better on ‘Stay Home, Elizabeth’, which is where Simms’ drums really kick in. Lyrics about “How they built this city” add to the Americana, yet Davies’ vocals – almost a ghostly narrator throughout – make it quintessentially British.

The more upbeat moments continue with ‘In The Wreckage’, which builds in a film-like fashion, and ‘The Closed Colleges’, with a higher tone to Davies’ voice reflecting the first glimpses of sunshine. It’s the slower, more atmospheric tracks that wrap around the listener though: the stunning imagery of ‘Blinded By The Flash’ (“Spent a lot of pointless winter days watching things just slip away”), the slightest hint of a U2-esque effects on ‘Blessed Bush’ and the concise “3-minute pop song”, ‘Risky’ (“I move so fast, you move so slow”).

‘Closer In The Woods’ is the moment where everything collides though; a stark vocal that’s more of a whisper, soon joined by a dreamy female accompaniment that grows from a few flakes into a flurry. It’s Springsteen-style story telling that refuses to slow down, until the unforeseen addition of an accordion outro ends the forecast perfectly. For those who favour Winter over Summer, and that feeling of being safe inside while watching the world through the window, this is the perfect accompaniment for thawing by the fire and thinking. It might not sound the same in July, but for now it’s quite simply stunning.

Dan Bull.