Close your eyes and imagine a cuckoo clock. Picture its distinctive design, the ornate decoration, all rhythmic regulation and promise of melodic surprise as the mechanism unwinds. Now keep your eyes closed, but this time listen... tune your ears to those same peculiar qualities and hear it's beautiful sound. 

There's something elemental about the music of Cuckoo Clocks, the counterpoint of Tracy Deakin's powerful vocal balanced by Paul Infanti's knowing tones, the compelling blend lifted aloft by soaring five point harmonies. There are natural comparisons to be made: Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac (if Mick and co had gained an appreciation of the Balearic impact), hypnotic swathes of West Coast psychedelia, country tinged soul with a nod to folk electronica, hints of Fairport Convention or Arthur Lee's Love all aired to dry in a post industrial Northern city.   

Their latest offering, Frontiers of a seductive Mind, is at once intimate and expansive, ambitious and highly accomplished; like you're witnessing music written to quench the band's own burning desires, but with a clear yearning to set the listener aflame. Lyrical narratives tell of momentary insights gained from lifelong journeys, of longing and fulfilment. Tales of love and separation, unity and redemption. A band who sound like freedom might feel, untethered by the fickle tastes of contemporary music fads, produced by people long enough in the tooth to be unashamed to showcase their considerable talent. Self assured and stylish to the point that you can imagine there being a potential Bond theme somewhere in the catalogue. 

Some say magic and art are the same thing, that music and art complete one another, and that music's mission is to show how passion creates feeling. Cuckoo Clocks are magicians, conjuring music that slips gently past the ears and is soaked up through the pores. Painting pictures of vast skies and long canyon lined roads. Music made by music lovers, their template all that's gone before brought together with a classic timeless feel.         

Some things are difficult to explain, they have to be witnessed. So close your eyes and bear witness...

Music. All genres or styles. It's just got to be good and from the heart!

Mimi O'Malley decided at the age of 3 that she wanted to learn how to play Saxophone whilst listening to Stevie Wonder on her Dad's record player. Skipping forward a while, after spending a lot of time in pubs playing Irish Music, and working hard through her Clarinet and Saxophone grades she gained a place at the prestigious Chethams School of Music in Manchester where she studied under James Muirhead (Halle Orchestra), and JoAnna Patton (Liverpool Philharmonic). She spent years playing every genre under the sun, in all the ensembles you can imagine, touring all over the world with various bands and now lives in Saltburn by the Sea on the North East Coast where she writes her own songs, and performs. To keep up to date with her goings on follow her at face book / mimiomalleymusic

Andy Kelsey is following