Edward Castelow is gliding out from behind the Dictaphone Blues moniker to release a tender album of songs under his own name. Written and recorded during 2020, Mirth is a nine-song collection of personal tales and reflections delivered in a rich baritone, released on February 26th, 2021.
Edward has gathered together a live band of friends to recreate the album for a one off show at Whammy Backroom on April 9th.
Lead single Down By The Riverside flows and builds like the Hakatere (the river that severs Tinwald from Ashburton, the small town where Edward grew up), wandering through arresting chronicles and feel changes until it bursts into an escalating coda. The follow up singles Baby It's For You and When Your Tears Have Dried show the depth to a collection of Castelow's finest work to date.
The songwriter responsible for the indie hits Her Heart Breaks Like A Wave and When Your Simulation Crossed Mine has not only been trying to write more concise song titles, but has also turned his pen towards more personal subjects. Life and death, love and loss all move throughout the album in various guises and through the writing process, Edward tried to find some mirth within all of them.
Happily retaining his earlier project's psych-pop panache, Castelow's new song incorporates folk strum into his synth-soaked universe of sound, unfurling a tender tale of interior exploration and concluding with a gloriously panoramic sonic swirl.
