Rachel Taylor-Beales

'Musically exquisite and enthralling, crystal production and musicianship full of absorbing ideas' - BBC Radio 4

It's the duty of all critics to compare any female musical artist to either Bjork or Joni Mitchell. At least that's what you'd assume if you regularly read the press. Of course this lazy and rampant compartmentalism doesn't do justice to many an independently minded performer such as Rachel Taylor-Beales, whose colour trilogy, has defied any easy tag from the start. 'Dust & Gold' now completes this intriguing series and offers up more of Rachel's idiosyncrasies in the shape of jazz-inflected storytelling, lush balladry and rootsy rambles.

'Turnaround Town' relays a childhood experience about a chance encounter with an Aboriginal women in the suburbs of Western Australia. Along with her trips up to Mt. Macedon in the opener ('Child Of The Sun') it's immediately apparent, once again, that Rachel's travelogue of dramas and dreams are couched in the raw detail of her own story. The overall mood is more optimistic than the previous albums, with a touch more lightness to the arrangements and narratives; even when reflecting on tough times a soothing refrain is closer than before. And there's a new found steeliness, as well as ready made encore, in the shape of 'Here We Go Now'.

There's no shortage of talent in her latest studio team with the main contribution coming from Dylan Fowler, an accomplished multi-instrumentalist. Dylan also handled all elements of the superbly vibrant production without losing any of the inherent intimacy. For examples, look no further than a trio of slow-burning ballads - 'Sing It Out', 'Come On In' and 'Dust And Gold', which act as a scintillating climax to the series.

Rachel now inhabits her own exclusive genre as her influences have become less overt over time - always the mark of a true artist. Her musical world is now a seamless soundtrack to her personal journey and a glowing fulfilment of her artistry.

David Kushar - Spiral Earth

No "difficult second album" worries for Rachel Taylor-Beales. 'Brilliant Blue', the Cardiff-based singer/songwriter's 2007 debut, was a lovely piece of work, but 'Red Tree' -- the second in a planned colour trilogy -- is a more than worthy successor. Playing acoustic and electric guitars, banjo, harmonica, piano and soprano sax with equal skill and grace, Taylor-Beales has also found some fine collaborators in fellow Welsh troubador Martyn Joseph, who produced and engineered the CD and guests on most of the tracks, and cellist Charlotte Eksteen among others. The consistently high standard of the writing and singing makes it hard to choose standout tracks: maybe the wry 'What If I Said?', with Joseph's slide guitar and lonesome harmonica echoing the song's wide-open imagery, or maybe 'Liberty', a bluesy number that ends with a gorgeously full-bodied hummed gospel chorus backed by tasteful banjo twangs. But oh, it's all good. Just have a listen and you'll see.

Sarah McQuaid

- Irish Herald

Starting her performance of hauntingly beautiful slow paced tunes she blissfully stroked your body into silent submission to her talent. Poetically soulful her songs build up to a fever pitch until they end, gently letting you come down to rest like a leaf softly touching the earth. Joined by two other musicians they create textured patterns between the cello, piano, guitar, flute and Rachel's whispering hushed vocal style, heightened during the song liberty in which she directs the audience in a subtle humming choir finale. Rachel's Red Tree CD is available through her website (www.racheltaylor-beales.com ) and I promise will be one of the best purchases you'll make this year. - Plugged in Magazine

www.spiralearth.co.uk


If I ever found myself on a soul searching journey through the Australian outback this music would be a worthy companion. It's scorched emotional sentiment and warmly embracing melodies produce their own heat haze and wide horizon lines. It would be well suited to the harsh conditions as this isn't casual music but exquisite sounds murmuring from the out of the shadows.

This is Rachel Taylor-Beales second instalment in a planned trilogy of colour themed albums. Partly inspired by 'The Red Tree' story book written and illustrated by Australian Author Shaun Tan that charts one girl's journey of hope. It includes two tracks that were composed in collaboration with poet and BBC radio 4’s Broadcaster, Stewart Henderson, as well as one track written by Bill Taylor-Beales. Whereas in the studio she has been working alongside the Welsh troubadour, Martyn Joseph. Not only is he contributing on a multitude of instruments but he produces, mixes and engineers the whole affair.

Part of the natural progression of Rachel's work is the emergence of a gospel and bluegrass hybrid. Something that was always strongly hinted at before has now reached fruition with 'Liberty' and 'Please Don't Pass Me By'. It's characterized by willowy patterns of notes and deft cello that cradle Rachel's smooth vocal tones.

Elsewhere it's noticeable that the style of Rachel’s singing has altered, revealing bluesy inflections and a new found confidence. It focuses the emphasis on the all important narrative which is chosen over any conventional verse/chorus formats. Some of the evocative prose is wonderfully stark against the gentle arpeggios. The title track tells us that 'hope twists on a tyre swing' and elsewhere feelings are still frayed: 'like a part of me missing, like a part of me aching, like a part of me lost'.

Charlotte Eksteen’s cello parts were the last to be recorded and I can only agree with Rachel that, ’her contributions have taken the album to another level'. For Rachel's own playing the guitar is often more favoured for this album yet she still holds some melodic trump cards at the piano. 'Something Aches' is a masterpiece of vocal phrasing with a strong dose of her trademark surges of bubbling notes, lapping at the edges of the words.

Events build to a crescendo of searing emotional intensity on 'Lately'. A blunt piano note is repetitively hit as part of a stunningly moving coda where Rachel lets fly with 'God knows. Been running'.

It's a courageous moment when an artist puts their creativity into the public arena and Rachel can be justifiably proud. As the boundaries melt away from her playing we can hear her creative intuition being met in perfect union with her technical abilities. It may be a turbulent world, with only chinks of light, and yet 'Red Tree' is a liberating listen. It should be welcomed with open arms, ears and eyes.

David Kushar - Spiral Earth

During a major trawl around Australia with a performing Arts Company Rachel Taylor-Beales and her husband Bill decided never to get 'proper' jobs. That bold decision led them through many a venue downunder, then onto the UK and the states.Currently with their restless spirit sufficiently in check they are based in Cardiff. It's from here that Rachel has established herself as a solo artist. Having initially self-released her debut album 'Brilliant Blue' it quickly caught the eye and ear of Martyn Joseph. Now she has the honour of being the first signing to Martyn's own Pipe Records.The album opens at it's most ethereal with rainfall and haunting vocals on 'For the Day'. It's a brave introduction and must be a difficult sound to capture. Rachel's supplies her own haunting soprano sax line. Elsewhere in the studio her duties include guitar and keyboards.Roaming piano, syncopated guitar and even marimbas usher in further tracks. All prove to be a worthy accompaniment for Rachel's soulful voice. The supporting cast, which includes the multi-skilled Bill deserve rich reward for their sterling work.The title track is a fine example of her own blend of avant-folk topped off with perfect beat poetry. It beautifully describes some captured moments,'The scene is one sunday afternoon and the sun shines through brilliant blue.'The lyrics on all of the tracks continue in the same effortless vein. They transcend the more haphazard musings of others and hint at a rich life history with their wry observations.Numerous people have swayed Rachel's sound. She can sail pretty close to Tori Amos on 'Cut' and 'Shuttle Bus 38' and 'Oh Sister' would sit nicely on any Gillian Welch album. This isn't wanton plagiarism though. Her tracks can turn on a few pivotal notes and take you elsewhere. Once you've been through Ani Difranco, Kristin Hersch and Joni Mitchell you give up on thoughts of reproduction. This is Rachel's own sound and it is totally convincing.It would be churlish to critisize but the closer '10,000 Miles' lacks a little melodic punch despite being a funked up fuzz workout. What it does reveal though is that she has ideas to spare.Martyn Joseph has made an astute decision to sign Rachel Taylor-Beales. 'Brilliant Blue' shows off a rare and majestic contemporary talent. It's time to indulge yourself and be dazzled.

David Kushar - www.spiralearth.co.uk

‘Singer-songwriter' has become an unwelcome phrase of late, tarnished by the high-on-saccharine sentiment, low-on-sincerity bleatings of Damien Rice et al. Even wet army chump-cum-troubadour James Blunt has been leaving bored housewives and impressionable teens swooning at the cliff edge with the heartbreak-by-numbers of ‘Beautiful’. And Christ, Alanis Morissette has deemed it appropriate to commemorate the tenth anniversary of her debut 'Jagged Little Pill' with a newly recorded acoustic live version on sale only at Starbucks. It feels like the end of the world. Lucky, then, that there are still songwriters to cherish. Step forward Rachel Taylor-Beales. While the obvious reference points are clear to see - the narrative walkways and heart-wrenching resignation of Joni Mitchell, Carole King’s ear for cascading pop melody – there’s a prodigious talent in the making here, swaying between dexterous acoustic flourishes and dusty jazz arrangements. The moniker for her debut album – ‘Brilliant Blue’ – says it all: stark, striking and coldly affecting. (Tim Bailey) - Venue Magazine

www.americana-uk
8 out of 10
Thea Gilmore has, for quite sometime now, been Britain’s female solo artist you’re allowed to like. Well, there’s a new kid on the block – enter Rachel Taylor-Beales. ‘Brilliant Blue’ is her debut solo album and , for want of a better description, it’s brilliantly blue. Easily as blue as Joni Mitchell’s Blue, if not more so. Here are ten torch songs put together with a whole bunch of of heart, everyone an understated epic of economy and emotion. Flitting between piano and acoustic guitar, each song is tear-drenched odyssey with Beales’ battered vocals surely a lesson in soulfullness that Norah Jones might want to attend. - Americana UK

I first came across Rachel Taylor-Beales when she supported Martyn Joseph and Stewart Henderson on their “Because We Can” tour. I was completely captivated by Cardiff-based singer songwriter and her distinctive voice and unique songs. “Brilliant Blue” is her first release and it’s a strong album, a million miles from the vacuous acoustic-pop that so often characterises modern singer-songwriters. Rachel’s singing is supported by subtle textures of a spectrum of instruments including acoustic guitar and jazzy bass, cello, flute and percussion. I found it difficult to pick out any one track as a particular favourite, I found myself listening to the album in its entirety each time I put it into the CD player. At a push, I’d pick out “Prayer for a Friend” and the title track, perhaps, but it’s one of the most coherent albums I’ve listened to in a long time. There are overtones of Beth Orton, Joni Mitchell and, to my ears, even Nick Cave and Tom Waits. These are songs that demand to be listened to and, indeed, deserve to reach a wide audience. A new talent, then, and one I look forward to hearing a lot more from. - Taplas Magazine

The first signing to Martyn Joseph's label, Taylor-Beales is no newcomer to the scene, having spent the last decade touring between the UK and Australia. These days she's based in Joseph's hometown of Cardiff, variously performing solo or with a varying line up of musicians. This though is her first album, a collection of 10 songs that display the folk, jazz and rock influences that vein her music and have picked up references to Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell and Tori Amos.
There's a lovely airy feel to arrangements that add flute (beautifully so on the featherlight dancing steps of Attic Girl), marimba, trumpet, cello and Spanish guitar to her own bedrock of guitar, piano and sax while the songs themselves play out into storylines about relationships, life on the road and finding yourself.
Despite the leafy Drake comparisons that feed into the material, its the acoustic American roots that sound strongest here with the jazzy folk of The Altar, the rippling backwoods feel of Prayer For My Friend, The Romantic Insomniac or the blues-spirituals Oh Sister which gives the Be Good Tanyas a run for their money. Jospeh says he was stopped in his tracks when he first hear her, understandable really with a flexible Norah Jones-like smoky voice that can easily convey yearning fresh innocence on Super Glue and seasoned, battered experience with the title track.
If the opening For The Day displays her skill at creating a mood, she's adept at evoking images too; take a listen to the Mitchell-esque Shuttle Bus 38 where she snapshots a piano drawn portrait of downtown San Francisco with its jazz man honky tonking in the harbour band stand, pawn lady, one legged clown and talk of 'conspiracy theories, bullfights and poetry'. As a hidden bonus, she also revisits the track for a woodsmoked version that pushes the piano away and invites in guitar, percussion and woodwind to ring the variations and transform the song into a completely different listening experience.
With the closing, fuzzed guitar 10,000 Miles showing she can do a solid piece of muscular clatter as well as the atmospheric acoustics, she's patently got talent to spare and, on the evidence of this album, it shouldn't be long before the rest of the discerning listening world shares Joseph's understandable awe.
Mike Davies, July 2006 - Net Rhythms

'With Rachel Taylor-Beales, not only do you get acutely crafted and captivating songs, but oh, that voice, with its power and delicacy. Such quality of interpretation, the kind that results in fan mail from angels. A rich and tender talent'.
Stewart Henderson, BBC Radio 4 presenter

Bob Harris, BBC Radio 2
Lovely!

Rachel's session for BBC radio Wales was full of her beautifully sung compositions, in a Joni Mitchell style but with a knowing introspection that makes you smile.
Chris Kneebone, BBC Wales producer of the Saturday Social

'A talent to celebrate'
Frank Henessey, BBC Wales, Celtic Heart Beat
- BBC UK