Richie Setford: Curious Growth (bandcamp)

It has been some little while since we have heard of and from expat Kiwi Richard Setford who is now a longtime Berliner. The last time was with his 2019 album Aimless Survivor and before that there was a brace of albums under the name Bannerman and he was a member of Batucada Sound Machine.

One of our contributing writers caught up with him (as Bannerman) in Berlin in late 2015 when he played a show with then then-little known Marlon Williams.

Setford is a heart-wide-open singer songwriter with a deep, lived-in voice which sits on gently crafted melodies (in a couple of places on this new album you feel Harry Nilsson and John Lennon might be whispering ideas to him) and here he has something to write about: the end of a long relationship “like so much driftwood cleaved from sure foundations”.

It's an age-old story of course but it's what the artist does with it which counts.

Setford brings violin and cello to some of these quiet, reflective songs (“you said all our dreams would last but they don't, they just pass” on Void Devotion which comes with a lovely French horn part).

And he allows himself to go through the pain as much as trying to find solace if not resolution: “If this were a movie I'd be played by Timothy Spall. Quiet and friendly, so motivated and all, absorbing the cruelty like a human shield” on Mild Psychotic.

There is the whole downer trip too of course (the open bar with lots of coke on the raw While We Can, the desperate drive into another relationship out of need) and then the downbeat European electro-pop of Daylight: “Help me on the train and take me home, I've gone missing”.

Many albums of this kind have an arc which resolves itself at the end with new love or acceptance, but Setford isn't of that frame of mind. He's still down and out by One More Goodbye at the end: “slowly we break apart, this is too hard . . .”

What prevents all of these being one glum downer which has you heading for the medicine cabinet or simply nihilistic is how he keeps just enough pop in his songs to make them appealing and magnetic.

His intimate, nakedly honest homecoming concerts should be worth catching.

Buy this man a drink.

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You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here.

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