Yeti Love is a duo of songwriters Peter Hamilton and Dave Sears. Hamilton is half Spanish with roots in Galicia and a lot of the rhythmic patterns of the regions folk music have fed into Yeti Loves sound. Add to that his and Sears backgrounds in rock bands and you have a pretty powerful mix, these guys are great musicians who have found a mutually enriching groove. Its heart is deep in Celtic folk traditions whilst it’s eyes are set firmly on a distant horizon.
Not being able to say ‘they sound a bit like’ is a refreshing position for a review. The truth is they have pulled in emotions from other styles, so you get the sadness of the Blues, the anger of Punk and the chest beating bite of Rock, all tightly wound into their own passionate style. That those emotions are balanced by the compassion of Soul and the human connection of Folk makes it pretty complex.
Their eponymous album debut is a guitar and mandolin driven statement of intent. There is no dip in quality or retreading of the same ground in its ten songs, that in itself is refreshing, so many bands hit upon a defining sound that becomes just too defining. Yeti Love has such variety on the album that it is one you just want to keep listening to again and again.
In fact the one word that keeps popping into my head about this is ‘authentic’, they have here something new yet rooted, you can tell that they are bursting with ideas. Crucially they have the skill to capture those ideas.
Iain Hazlewood
