There was a time when a journey meant just that – a geographical progression with a defined purpose. In the hands of the hippies, a journey became allegory for a nebulous personal and spiritual awakening; as the hippies became cashed up professionals, corporations adopted the journey as the discursive term to rationalise internal business transformation – which, stripped of its cute rhetoric, so often means re-structuring and job losses.
Jessica Davies and Katherine Blamire, the protagonists behind Smoke Fairies, have apparently been on a journey of sorts. And judging by the pair’s latest record, Blood Speaks, it’s been a journey worth taking. Blood Speaks is the acid folk record you want to make when you’re high as a kite, blowing in the candy-coloured breeze, gazing in wonder at the spiritual undulations of the modern world. Let Me Know takes Californian Fleetwood Mac and doses it in Owsley’s finest acid; Awake turns up at a communal sing along with David Crosby, Joni Mitchell and Sandy Denny and offers moral support.
Daylight is dirty to the aural touch, grinding and thrusting like a flawed man hellbent on redemption. The title track skips around a field full of mushrooms with Kate Bush-like innocence, Feel It Coming Near captures the conflicting paradox of romance (“something dies when you fall in love”), while channelling Fairport Convention’s religious inspiration. On Hideaway Smoke Fairies drag you down to the water’s edge of mystical enlightenment and reveal the world beyond secular understanding. The world in Version of the Future is pithy, neat and elegant and almost enticing and Film Reel reminds us of a time when Suzanne Vega used to live on the second floor and not play shitty corporate venues like Crown Casino.
Smoke Fairies should be your new favourite band. Take the journey and experience the beauty.
BY PATRICK EMERY
Best Track: Let Me Know.
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: FAIRPORT CONVENTION, JONI MITCHELL, DAVID CROSBY
In A Word: Acid
