As a rule of thumb making something sound simple is much trickier than making something sound complex. Its one of those idiosyncratic rules that makes music so interesting. James Canty is a perfect example of this. The ingredients on his single ‘Shark in The Shallows’ are basic. Simple plucked acoustic guitar, organic vocals and very DIY percussion. Which makes it all the more suprising that the song is so engaging.
There’s a near certainty that somebody somewhere will say he sounds like Ed Sheeran. Especially because of the section at 1:20 when the vocals sort of, for just a second, turn into rap. Don’t let that put you off though. Canty is no-where near as Radio1 pandering as Sheeran. The folk influences in his music are also much less forced. There’s a genuine fiddle playing over his vocals rather than some awful forced sample, plucked from the archives by some Label executive driven mad by repeated listens to Mumford & Sons. We’re really quite taken with this guitar wielding, slightly mad (just look at that picture) Essex Lad.
Shark in The Shallows will be released as a 7″ through Smugglers Records this summer.
