The Lost Art - The Slaughtered Lamb

Gordo Francis - The Lost Art

Neither lost nor found Greg Hooper and Gordo Francis are somewhere in between. We love a story of the barrow boy who wins a talent show or a housewife destined for operatic glory but often these are tricks that successfully play on our heart strings rather than please the ear. It is true that Bicester duo The Lost Art are a relatively new act to ride the live music circuit but they are no strangers to their instruments nor their craft. Both Hooper and Francis play acoustic guitar, are classically trained, the former is head of music at Bruern Abbey School in Chesterton and the latter is a music tutor at Marlborough School in Woodstock. They are proud to let their music do the talking and for you to make the discovery for yourself.

Greg Hooper

They re-release their debut album in 6 weeks with a UK Tour and we caught a glimpse of what to expect at The Slaughtered Lamb (09/04/2015). Equals is the opener to the self titled album and also on this night, it is a light line, a taught straightness is its pull. Like a thick sailor's rope you can see the smaller twines, thin and light amongst a girth that is as wide as your arm.

The Passenger is a joy of broken lyrics, stop-start footsteps and galloping breezes. It has a freshness to rival the days when you could poke your head out of the train window, playing Russian roulette with tunnels and oncoming locomotives. It snakes like the twelve carriage variety too and through its windows we catch glimpses of other people's lives as we slip past undetected.

Tim Hooper

Between Gordo Francis and Greg Hooper sat Tim Hooper on box percussion but it was the guitarists' interplay that dominated the short set. Francis is the everyman in the duo, his strength is much more obvious while Hooper excels in an emotive bite. Kicking The Habit was the flex of muscle from The Lost Art. It suited the blood red glow from the Slaughtered Lamb's famous neon pentagram. It is a song worth getting your axe stuck in to, an anthem for chopping wood until the breath is loose in your chest.

AL.

The Lost Art launch their debut album with a UK tour.

4th July - Sheffield - Oakfest
16th July - Manchester - Bierkeller
20th July - Leeds - Gaslight Club
22nd July - Liverpool - Zanzibar
25th July - Charlbury - Riverside Festival
26th July - Sheffield - Tramlines Festival, The Bath Hotel
28th July - Bristol - Canteen
29th July - London – Dublin Castle
31st July - Witney - Cogges Farm
23rd August - Tunbridge Wells Forum