Billed as "Cascadian third-wave indie progressive chamber-folk roots", West My Friend do their best to justify this impressive calling card by ticking all those boxes and then some more. The four-piece is from Victoria in British Columbia. Guitar, double bass, accordion and mandolin are the core instruments augmented by brass, strings and percussion and random other musical agents. Their quirky songs, part bluegrass, part pop, part show tunes, part chamber-folk, betray influences that range from classical to traditional. Then there are the vocal arrangements – complex four-part harmony, ducking and diving, weaving in and out of tunes with light-touch surprise. It is oddball warm and rarely less than intriguing or ambitious, but it lacks coherence and shape. West My Friend are just too clever for their own good.westmyfriend.com

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