Two Wings

Love's Spring Tin Angel Records***

British band Two Wings’s debut could be an album dredged up from 40 years ago. Its folky tracks suggest the Incredible String Band or Dr Strangely Strange, with their mystical lyrics, recorders, flutes and ad-hoc choirs, while there is also a strong Americana streak with doleful lap steel, anguished harmonica, and brash brass.

A hint of the shambolic pervades all eight tracks. This faux-amateur quirkiness is heightened by the truly distinctive voice of Hanna Tuulikki, an English woman with Finnish roots, whose high-pitched, angular readings of the songs she has co-written with guitarist Ben Reynolds leave the ears tingling; his vocals are more mundane. And yet, in time, the band's kooky sensibility, their tasteful use of reference and, most of all, the strange adhesive melodies of songs such as the title track, Eikon, Feet and Just Like inspire slightly reluctant admiration. twowings.bandcamp.com

Download tracks:Eikon, Just Like