Keeley FORSYTH - Debris

The leaf label

£17.80

Format: LP
Cat: BAY116V
Barcode: 843190011612
Release Date: 15 Jan 2020
Genre: Indie

Despite its early January release, Debris had an excellent showing in the end of year lists for 2020, including Uncut, the Quietus, The Line of Best Fit, Loud and Quiet, Rough Trade, Norman, Resident, Love Record Stores, Jumbo, Drift and Stranger Than Paradise

#41 IN UNCUT BEST ALBUMS OF 2020: “STARTLING COLLECTION OF SONGS… DEBRIS IS AS OTHERWORLDLY IN SOUND AS ANONHI’’

“The new Scott Walker”
The Guardian

“Arid and beautiful debut”
7.6 Pitchfork

“Forsyth’s album Debris is one of the most remarkable in years”
The Sunday Times

“Debris is an astonishing debut, not just for the power of the songs, but for the journey they trace”
★★★★ Uncut
“Reminiscent of Nico, or Karen Dalton, Beth Gibbons at the edges - leaving the deepest impression”
★★★★ Mojo
“This deeply melancholic brand of haunting, sparse folk is as intoxicating as it is unsettling”
★★★★ Q
“It may be only January, but Debris gives the overwhelming impression that one of the defining releases of 2020 may already be upon us.”
★★★★½ Music OMH
“Debris can join Nick Cave’s last two albums as the soundtrack to your loneliest moments, the hand you will want to grasp when you come apart, a voice that will touch your sadness and change your world tonight.”
★★★★½ God Is In The TV

For fans of Nico, Scott Walker, Aldous Harding, Karen Dalton, Susanna & The Magical Orchestra, Jenny Hval, PJ Harvey, Cat Power, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Fever Ray.

The songs comprising Keeley Forsyth’s debut, are, she states simply, “like blocks of metal that drop from the sky”. Minimal arrangements place that elemental voice front and centre. Nerves are quietly frayed over its running time; an intimate document of personal change, we’re held in limbo until the final note is left to ring. Debris explores the darker corners of domestic life, balancing the need to create with the responsibilities that come with a family, a partner and a career. Seismic ruptures behind closed doors. “There was a lot going on in my life that was heavy and hard,” she adds. “Songs were made under that moment.”

Born and raised in Oldham in the north-west of England, Forsyth first made her name as an actor. Her enigmatic voice is so indelible even she is sometimes provoked to refer to it as a third person, like the characters she’s inhabited as an actor, this time populating songs sharing tales of the high and low tides, of freedom and entrapment, and of hard-won triumphs. “They’ve been in my mind for a while,” she concludes. “I have sung them to my children, and at home alone, and making this album has been an opportunity for me to discover the voice and being who sings these songs. It has changed me, and will continue to. I recognise my life again.”

With sparse arrangements by pianist and composer Matthew Bourne and producer Sam Hobbs, Keeley Forsyth’s music is centred around a singular, emotionally raw and magnetic vocal delivery.

The first single ‘Debris’ was accompanied by an evocative video directed by Maxine Peake. Maxine also gave ‘Debris’ its first radio play on BBC 6 Music. Early support from Mary Anne Hobbs, John Doran, Laura Barton, Stuart Maconie and Late Junction.

1. A1. Debris
2. A2. Black Bull
3. A3. It’s Raining
4. A4. Look To Yourself
5. B1. Lost
6. B2. Butterfly
7. B3. Large Oak
8. B4. Start Again