Two things you need to know up front about Wellington’s Seth Frightening: his music is far from frightening, and he’s been making damn fine folk music since he was in high school.
I know the second point to be true because he’s simultaneously released two EPs, both of older material. One EP, B.Hoo/High School, features five of those songs written and recorded while he was teenager. The second, B.Hoo, is three songs of unknown age.
Both show his ability to craft alluring folk tunes, but also serve to show his evolution as a musician. The high school EP is stripped back, just a boy and his guitar, singing earnestly and honestly, whereas the later EP takes a more experimental route and has a more mature sound, both in his songwriting and vocal strength.
B.Hoo is the better quality recording, but the roughness of B..Hoo/High School works for it – it’d be hard to image the songs having the same raw authenticity if they had a more polished sound.
There’s talk of a new full length from Seth Frightening later in the year - until then these two EPs should more than fulfill your folk cravings.
