Steve Abel & The Chrysalids

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steve — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 07:40:54 +0000

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Blue Lady

admin — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 05:30:15 +0000

With Gin Wigmore at the Silver Scroll awards

Hospice for Destitute Lovers

admin — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 22:22:50 +0000

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Duet (Lonely I Be)

admin — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 09:01:33 +0000

Anomie reprise

admin — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 07:35:50 +0000

Sample of Anomie reprise – track number 11 from Flax Happy.

Sally

admin — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 07:33:16 +0000

The first track off Flax happy.

“beautifully dark hypnotic”

steve — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:27:59 +0000

…a relaxing spell with Steve Abel ‘Heart Of Misery (The Bough)’ (Kins’land) is a necessary release. Mixing his beautifully dark hypnotic voice with Jolie Holland is a master stroke as they compliment each other perfectly on a gorgeous track which continues Abel’s haunting work as a husky troubadour. A quick closure of the eyes transports you down into the dark misty sewers, but always with the light in your view.

Bearded Magazine.co.uk

“Simple and moving – like all the best music should be.”

steve — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:15:13 +0000

Steve Abel – Heart of Misery (Kins’land)

Steve Abel looks like he could do with a good feed but that doesn’t let him waste his doleful voice shouting for burgers down at McDonalds. Au contraire, ‘Heart of Misery’ is a beautiful country tinged ballad infused with feeling and antique violin sound. Simple and moving – like all the best music should be.

- SB, TastyFanzine.org.uk (9 Oct 2009)

“Stirs, swirls and seduces”

steve — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:14:10 +0000

Steve Abel ‘Heart of Misery (The Bough)’ (Kins’land). One of our greatest regrets this year – and there have been many – is our recent realisation that we never committed pen to paper or more precisely finger to PC key stroke in cobbling together an appraisal of Mr Abel’s recent ‘flax happy’ full length. Its been much a puzzle for us given that when said album arrived in our gaff its became for a while the chosen soundtrack with which we wound down to in the wee small hours. Comprising of four cuts this EP gathers together a solitary cut from his ‘little death’ debut and a trio of gems from the aforementioned ‘flax happy’ – the sounds within all at once stirring, tender, intimate and crushed. Veering between the mellowing and melancholic, Abel’s nearest reference marker is first and foremost the criminally overlooked June Panic none more so is this the case than on the head bowed ghostly glow of darkly neglect ’gone’ with its early career Black Heart Procession trappings, measured and elegantly daubed with the same richly vibrant intimacy that loitered amid the grooves of Panic’s ’horror vacui’ set from a few years ago. That said elements of Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen in his more considered and wounded moments are never to far from the mix, the former certainly the subject of nods via ’sweetheart’ though it’s the chemistry brought to bear by the book-ending duets with Jolie Holland that seal this set and make it something of an essential purchase. ’heart of misery’ may just prove to be one of the saddest things you’ve ever heard, there’s something beautifully broken about this tear swept lip trembler, Abel’s ever watchful melancholic murmurs transfused with the spirit of Hank Williams and Johnny Cash and tempered by the same resigned resonance of Leonard Cohen after a failed happy pill detox wither in the weeping wind drifts of the sympathetic string arrangements with Ms Holland’s supportive softly purred Texan tones shimmering softly with a sepia streaked timelessness. yet in all fairness it’s the parting ’cinders in the sun’ that’ll floor you in just one brief listen, beneath its hitherto aching cello and fiddle braids a warmth filled gospel tweaked road folk blues stirs, swirls and seduces.

Mark Barton

http://www.losingtoday.com/tales.php?id=306

Steve Abel – ‘Heart of Misery’ UK single release

steve — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 07:52:55 +0000

cd/digital single Released by Kins’land Records on Monday 5th October 2009

Following recent live performances with Jolie Holland and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily in London and New York Steve Abel is embarking on some select UK dates in October to support the release of forthcoming single “Heart of Misery (The Bough)”, one of the songs featuring Jolie Holland from his latest album ‘Flax Happy’ – released in the UK in May 2009 to glowing reviews. You can see him on the following dats

October 1st Café Oto w/ Laura Gibson, London

October 7th St Giles in the Fields Church w/ Mark Eitzel, London

October 8th Slaughtered Lamb, London

‘Flax Happy seeps stealthily into the mind and takes root’ – Rock ‘n’ Reel Magazine

‘Impressive, simple beauty’ – Organ Magazine

‘Lush and beautiful. Dark but uplifting’ * * * * – Leeds Guide

‘The escalating-in-excellence Steve Abel – equal parts disturbing and lullaby-esque.
Sparse but dense, quiet but intense. Consummately relaxed danger.’ – The Quietus

‘Shimmering – one of the most perplexing and stirring efforts you will ever hear.’ – This Metal Sky

‘New Zealander Abel and his supergroup of Island talent peak with ‘Cinders of The Sun’, a gloriously downcast country tale with added punch from folksy Texan chanteuse Jolie Holland. Worth investigating.’ The Comet

‘Steve has the balls and courage to examine everything, past, present, and most importantly, future. There is an inner-struggle going on here, and as noble as his intentions are, there’s got to be a collision of guttural emotions before anything can really be resolved, and the more I listen to this album, it’s this struggle within the grand confines of whatever the hell the future holds for him that is the guts of ‘Flax Happy’. Pennyblack Music

for more information contact sean@mutante.co.uk 0044(0)7947609867 or 00393351683984