[Audio] Daughter – “Run”

London trio Daughter have been a fascinating prospect for a while now. I wrote a little something about Elena Tonra’s atmospheric folk project towards the end of last year, and now the word is that a debut LP can be expected on 4AD sometime early in 2013. New single “Smother” has just been released, and in an interesting move its B-side is this re-worked version of “Run”, which first appeared on Daughter’s Demos EP.

Unsung Heroes #2: Daughter

Unsung Heroes is the new semi-regular feature on Wordcore in which I extoll the virtues of an artist I just don’t think gets listened to or recognised enough. This time around I bend the rules to introduce a badly-kept secret: the bruised and powerful “folk” sounds of Daughter.

Some clever soul on Twitter the other week commented that next time they had the chance, they’d ask someone what it was like to be a man in a band. It’s a wry joke but one with a real point behind it – in 2011, the incredible emerging artists seem much more often to be women (or bands heavily involving women) than men. Without wanting to conscript Unsung Heroes into the sex war, that tweet is on my mind as I choose to highlight this particular artist.

Live: Benjamin Francis Leftwich – O2 Academy Oxford, 18/10/11

The posters and flyers for tonight’s show at Oxford’s O2 Academy bore the proud announcement that the event had been “upgraded due to demand”. While one might have hoped that the moving of the gig into the far larger downstairs area was due to increased attention earned by support act Daughter in recent weeks, this idea does not last long. Instead, the venue is packed with fans of our profoundly lacklustre headliner who show a shocking level of disrespect towards his far superior support. Before our eyes, what began as a source of real excitement is “upgraded” into a showcase for much of what can go wrong in a live context.

Recently I went to cover one of the worst gigs I’ve ever known – a rude crowd destroyed support sets by Monument Valley and deservedly-hyped Daughter, then fell obediently silent for almost bafflingly poor Benjamin Francis Leftwich.

Read the full review at The Line of Best Fit here