Superb vocals and acoustic guitar playing. I really like the foreboding presence this song has.

Really enjoyed this. I liked the sort of folky start that later introduces more modern elements. I think you could even put your voice through some distortion/overdrive and give the scream more 'scream'. [It would work with the harmonies too.] Really good build up to the second  chorus. I felt the guitar picking needed to break for a middle eight variation, sort of deconstruct and build again just to emphasise the growth vector. Just needs a bit more on the chorus for me but a nice song.

Track 4 from our four track Acoustic EP. A song about the Spanish Sierra Nevada mountain range amongst other themes.

Sierra Nevada (From our Acoustic EP)

Track 3 from our four track Acoustic EP. A song about growing up in the West Midlands county of England in the 1980s.

Song of the Middle Land

Track 2 from our four track Acoustic EP. A song about hope, dreams, inadequate housing, the barriers between people, tin mining and, above all, spirit.

It's Spirit

Track 1 from our four track Acoustic EP. A song about empowerment and adhering to one's beliefs.

The Call

'Numbers' from our  album 'Close to the Clouds' which you can download in full here https://underabanner.bandcamp.com/

Numbers

English Soul taken from Under A Banner's second album 'Close to the Clouds'.

English Soul

'The Scream' - a rallying call against oppression - as used by the not-for-profit organisation Safe World For Women in one of their campaign videos.

Featuring darkly insistent piano  played by Alex Vann.

The Scream

A great tune to dance to - our take on a rousing Irish jig!!

When We Used to Dance

Grab your Tankards! Featureing gang backing vocals from Jonny Millington and Jack Rowe

First Light (A Drinking Song)

"Sometimes it rolls in, as a gradual mist that makes for sad, reflective days; sometimes it descends as a thick fog, a blanket of pain and confusion,” Mr Wells senior said. “We accept that these feelings will be with us for the rest of our lives." 

Quote from Holly's father, July 2012 on 10th anniversary of his daughters murder.....

Rushing, across fields that once were green,
A fire in the breeze,
The embers on the sea

If  I had -  a penny for the rain, 
This pretty rain,
Such pretty rain,

The farewell prayers,
In the rain,
This rain,
All so frail.               
So frail

Lightning Strikes,
Upon this face,
Free......at last.   


The Tempus Collective - "Soham Rain"

Some Stories (radio edit) 3.38

<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a>This work is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License</a>.
What follows is a review by an online music blogger who, at the time of writing, did not know the band personally:

 Under A Banner  Jan 14
 by Themistocles 
Under A Banner are a wonderful discovery. The dream of traditional England flows through the work of this Midlands outfit, blending folk-styled music with the ideals of punk – a haunting, ethereal throwback to real English folk traditions mixed with the revolutionary fight and inspiration of bands like New Model Army.

The themes differ – from the evocative and powerful “Inseperable”, gentle melodies of the guitar subtly underscored with the sombre interludes of the violin and all topped with soaring, mysterious vocals in a tale of love and loss – to the passionate and idealistic self-proclaimed drinking song: “First Light” – ‘Into the city we go, Straight through ’til we see the first light of tomorrow’. In this case, the words assisted with clanging electric guitars tinging the idealism with aggression, a call to arms, almost.

However, the real joy for me lay in “The Scream”, an impassioned cry for freedom, to break loose and live: “Now raise your head from the shadows and scream, just scream; They kept you so quiet for so long… The sound of your beautiful scream” – primacy, anger and fascination with the fundamental elements of human nature, finding joy in simplicity and the release. Combined with the rapid acoustic guitars and pulsing rhythm of the drums, along with the dark natural imagery (“the storm” and “the noise”), the song becomes an insistent repeat, a rallying cry against stagnation and repression:“We love to create to destroy” – our freedom is most important.

Under A Banner are a breath of fresh air in a music scene stagnating and dying with manufactured pop, here is a band calling back to the earliest days of musical expression and bringing it back   in a whirlwind of acoustic guitars, poeticism and passion. A band you can stomp your foot and sing along to, and to whom you want to follow forward, as they so wisely put it, with “beer, wine and song” – an admirable sentiment indeed.

The Scream

under a banner

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Jan Haddock

hurdygurdygurl

Phil McWalter

eastriver studio productions

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