Blue-Eyed Hawk: Under the Moon

All too often, the sonic explorer types forget to bring home the pretty, but not Blue Eyed Hawk. From the off, there's no doubting that this London-based quartet are from the weird part of the sound forest, but there is real beauty here too. Dubliner Lauren Kinsella's vocals reach far beyond the conventional, and she deftly adapts her literary sources to suit the music, including the Yeats poem that gives the band its name and the title of their debut for hot UK independent label Edition. Guitarist Alex Roth, trumpeter Laura Jurd and drummer Corrie Dick, with creative input from producers Tom Herbert and Leafcutter John, craft soundscapes that veer from a spacious twang reminiscent of Dave Douglas, to ear-shredding metal more reminiscent of Meshuggah, including a deliciously menacing version of Somewhere over the Rainbow. More required. soundcloud.com/blueeyedhawk