The Magnetic North on The Moon

It has been a bit of a slow start to the year musically; there has been a lot of pretty good stuff released, but a few albums have not lived up to their predecessors or the promise of initial EP and/or single releases. So no album has quite instantly floated my boat, but the second album from The Magnetic North has managed to enchant me due to its beauty and mystery, and because it is inspired by Skelmersdale, a new town in West Lancashire and the official UK home of the Transcendental Meditation movement. It harks back, in many ways, to a more enlightened and progressive time, in contrast to Blighty 2016 and the unnecessary and pointless plebiscite causing further economic uncertainty and only serving to placate the little englander wing of an increasingly incompetent ruling party.

The Magnetic North consist of the talents of Gawain Erland Cooper with Simon Tong his Erland and the Carnival collaborator and also a past or present member of The Verve, Blur, The Good the Band and the Queen and Gorillaz, along with composer/singer-songwriter Hannah Peel.

Check out the album promo below, with some great footage on the creation of the new town and also stream the album via Spotify, or find it in the other usual places.