The Music Room – James Summerfield, Richard Burke & World Of Fox

On “Count To 10 and Start Again”, his 3rd solo album and first for Commercially Inviable Records, James Summerfield returned with a lightness of touch, dark and strange humour and his ever present fantastic ear for melody to tell sweet tales of the biggest blows. It was widely acknowledged are his finest work to date. Co-produced with fellow Peel veteran and labelmate Simon Fox (Grover), “Count To 10…” is undeniably frank and deals with his dark period, yet contains the beautiful melodies and musical arrangements that followers of James’ work will fondly remember.

Richard Burke previously screamed his way through seven years of Indie rock mayhem with the wonderfully shambolic Starries before deciding that his delicate, lusty vocal chords were much better suited to the comparatively quieter world of off-kilter folk. His forthcoming debut album, “An Ocean Full Of Broken Stars”, clocks in at just under 30 minutes and is simply a magical, mesmerising collection of songs. Listeners to the album will immediately be drawn to future single, “Brown Eyes, Dark Hair” and his stunning, highly personal take on Yazoo’s “Only You”. Whilst Indie Rock mourns his loss, then, Off-Kilter Folk can rejoice as he melds the fluent guitar style of Jose Gonzalez to the tunefulness of Teenage Fanclub, all the while incorporating his wonderfully quirky and often heart-wrenching lyrics.

A prolific and committed independent musician, Simon Fox aka World Of Fox, was formerly leader of Birmingham’s post-rock pioneers, Grover. Between 1993 and 2003 Grover released a host of albums, singles and split releases on independent labels around the world. Broadcasts on BBC Radio1 (including a Peel Session in 2001), plus airtime on a variety of independent stations in Europe and the USA, helped Grover build a dedicated international fan-base and influence the UK post-rock scene. As well as performing solo, Simon can often be seen/heard collaborating with other artists. Most notably, he was one half of electronica duo Krafla, was a founder member of the Experimental Music Collective, recorded and gigged an album with Clair Horton, is currently working with James Summerfield and is a regular guest DJ for the Grumpy Man DJs.