Francesca Baker

On the opposite side of the world there exists a parallel universe, the folk fashion of Mumford & Sons et al finding a mirror in bands such as Gypsy & The Cat and Boy & Bear, Boy & Bear even wearing flat caps in their promo shots. Injecting some Australian sunshine into what is often considered a good old English country garden genre, With Emperor Antarctica, is a collection of five short and sweet, yet grandly sonic swathes of folk from Boy & Bear. Propulsive riffs stop with precisely calculated rhythms to create moments of suspense, each imaginative shift capturing the ear. The ethereal ‘Mexican Mavis’ is hauntingly repetitive, and whoozy echoes on ‘Rabbit Song’ make the soul shiver and mouth smile like waves lapping at the toes. Like a journal of summer doodles,  ‘With Emperor Antarctica’ does not develop into an entirety, but is a perfect swoonsome and stumbling whole in itself.