Part Timer – Real to Reel

Part Timer is John McCaffrey, a musician based in Melbourne. Besides being one half of the electronica duo Clickits (with Jonny Russell) he started his laptop folk solo project Part Timer with first releases on moteer and flau. This third album ‘Real to Reel’ has been released through Lost Tribe Sound. For this album Part Timer worked with cellist Aaron Martin, harpist and vocalist Heidi Elva and the vocalists Nicola Hodgkinson and John’s wife Danielle McCaffrey. The result is a wonderful collection of folk songs. Beautiful melodies, understated drums and clear guitar samples are accompanied by Martin’s cello parts, decent textures and some vocal layers.

The opening track ‘The distance between us’ is a melancholic love song – and the melancholy that is introduced here will lead us through the complete album. ‘The Runner’ seems to be deeply inspired by Craig Armstrong’s ‘Wake up in New York’, the guitar line and tonality are identic actually. However, this track is a special one, not just because a wonderful ‘The Runner Remix EP’ has been delivered with the album containing remixes by Orla Wren, Green Kingdom, Vieo Abiungo and Tokyo Bloodworm (but to name a few). ‘Untold, Unfold’ is another remarkable piece with a wonderful instrumentation and arrangement followed by the cello solo piece called ‘It’s a storm’. For me personally, the most outstanding piece on that album is ‘Never meant to be’. Here McCaffrey, Martin and Elva worked out a truly beautiful folk song. In its most positive sense it reminds me a bit of the early Emiliana Torrini works on ‘Fisherman’s woman’ – notably the perfect coherence of the voice (with a gentle and beautifully naive undertone) and the guitar. On ‘Never meant to be’ the sound is widened with the cello part that fits perfectly in this track with all its understatement. Perfect. ‘Taken along quietly’ completes the album with a slow and thoughtful guitar piece.

‘Real to Reel’ will be a eligible companion wherever you are, I suppose. But maybe the dose of melancholy won’t be useful to brighten your mood in various situations. However, it’s one of the finest folk albums I’ve heard for a while. Recommended!

[ 4,5 / 5 ]