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REVIEW  -MUMFORD & SONS, 'LOVE YOUR GROUND EP- LAUNCH" CAMDEN LOCKS, DINGWALLS.
By Leonie Eastwood

"Love your ground"..

Mumford and Sons have seemingly covered the ground, winning England’s heart with their efforts to produce beautiful sounding modern folk music on an untouched scale.

The stage presence, the intimacy and level of talent on display at Dingwalls on the Camden Locks as they launched their latest EP was something else. Their vocalist, Marcus Mumford seems wise beyond his years as he sings, laying out his troubled soul for all to see.

Performing songs from both their first and second EP, Love Your Ground, the young British folk four-piece captivate the intimate audience, bringing them together through their unique blend of vocals, electric banjo’s, cellos, fiddles, accordions and drums.

The intimate crowd is silenced as they roll into ‘Little Lion Man’, a venomous portrayal reflecting on the failure of a relationship. “It was not your fault but mine, I really fucked it up this time didn’t I my dear.” A fast paced rhythm, twinned with a jaunty beat could easily slip by momentarily with a blink but listen carefully and you hear a man tearing himself apart.

Marcus first revealed his husky vocals as Laura Marling’s right-hand man; going onto support her and the infamous Johnny Flynn during their American Tour earlier this year along with the other Sons. Now, standing as a band very much in their own right, they seem to be the latest on this conveyer belt of London folk music and possibly the best to surface yet.

Before even releasing their first EP, they received the title of ‘Single of the Week’ on BBC Radio 2 for the song ‘Roll Away Your Stone’, which was an impressive start for a worthy little folk ditty.

The charming jack-of all-trades, Winston, fed the eager crowd with plenty of on-stage banter whilst reaching for trumpets, mandolins and glockenspiels, giving the gig an electric folk festival feel. The venue is dimly lit with waves of admiration rippling through the crowd as they are united by their slow sways and shared smiles. Everyone appears content and the eyes are fixated to the stage.

Their style is unmistakably British matching their personalities as Winston tells the crowd tales of rifling through charity shops, sourcing their flat caps, knitted cardies, waistcoats and leather boots aplenty. It’s a self-aware style that suggests a love of romanticism as their vintage shirts that look like they’ve lived a lifetime already along with their loyal faded Levi’s. As the leaders of London’s new folk revival they carried the willing audience to an old England with rolling hills, unrequited love and corruptible souls. The existence of modern romance is often at doubt but when it comes to tugging heart-strings, no other act comes close to that of Mumford and Sons.

See the London quartet yourself and make of them what you will, as they head out on a 22-date UK tour later this month and be the first to check out their new EP release, currently still untitled, available in April through Chess Club Recording.

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