KNOTS by Matt Stalker & Fables

KNOTS

'Here are stories that dance and swoon and fizz with real and imagined lives, uncoiling themselves against a myriad of pleasures and pains... as teeming with life as a deep forest in mid summer. If Gaudí had been a musician, he might have made something similar to Knots'
(Beccy Owen, Sharks Took The Rest, March 2014)

'Knots is... arresting. And when I say “arresting” I don’t mean that it grabs you by the lapels and batters you into submission. No. The band play a kind of backlit chamber folk which casts interesting shadows across generally sunny uplands. And adding bits of bluegrass, jazz and alt country to their acoustic mix doesn’t harm either, with these spine-tingling, supremely melodic songs, capable of holding you absolutely rapt.' (The Crack, May 2014)

'Intensely beautiful' (The Journal Culture Magazine, June 2014)

Article from NARC magazine, June 2014:

Matt Stalker & Fables are an astonishingly talented bunch. For
proof, one need look no further than their second full-length
record, Knots. We may only be approaching the halfway mark of
2014, but in Knots there is a strong contender for the most
beautifully crafted, lyrically affecting album of the year. While
their 2011 debut The Man Who Said This Died of Alchemy was a
masterpiece, Knots further confirms the staggering musicianship
of Stalker and his four Fables.

“I’m a perfectionist, as the rest of the band would tell you,”
explains Stalker. “I’m an incredibly slow writer and I don’t pursue
ideas unless I get goosebumps when I listen back. The major
difference with Knots is I stopped trying so hard, which
paradoxically makes the songs sound better.

The net result of this change in approach is indeed something
spectacular. Largely recorded in a Victorian primary school in
Britain’s highest village, Allenheads, Knots is a record that ebbs
and flows as naturally as the tide; understated yet immensely
powerful. What perhaps stands out most about Knots is the
complexity of Stalker’s lyrics, the theme of which is as intriguing as the music is breathtaking.

“I’d been writing character pieces because I’ve never felt my life was interesting enough to write about, and I noticed these songs came under the heading of ‘knots’. They’re tricky relationships - one song is about dating a widow and the peculiar sense of competition you may have with the deceased husband - and when I started reading more about R.D. Laing the two things came together. It makes sense with what I do for a living, I work in therapy and it’s all about knots and untangling them. That’s what excites me I suppose, it’s a theme that makes sense.”

Tracklist

1.	The Moses Choreography	3:04

2.	Seasick/Spiderwebs	3:47

3.	Gently Whirring Percolator, Drowned Out By Morning Rush	5:19

4.	About The Author	2:33

5.	Everything Or Not At All	4:34

6.	Knots	0:54

7.	Doubt Is A Great Burden	2:24

8.	Wildfire Smiles	4:15

9.	You're Always Welcome At My House	5:08

10.	Camomile Tea	2:29

11.	The Foreign Terrain of Now	3:18

Credits

released June 16, 2014

All songs copyright Matt Stalker (2014), except Wildfire Smiles, copyright Matt Stalker & Katie Scott (2011).

Produced by Liam Gaughan & Matt Stalker
Mastered by Red Mastering (London)

Vinyl lacquers by Sound Masters (London)
Vinyl pressing by Mobineko (France)

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