The Magnetic North performed an intimate show on Sunday at the Brudenell Social Club, which featured fantastic support from Grant K. Fennel, and treated the audience to the exclusive première of their film, which accompanies their debut album Orkney: Symphony of the Magnetic North, released in May this year.
The film gave the audience a fascinating insight into the making and unique inspiration for the album: the band members grew up in Orkney, a collection of 70 islands in northern Scotland, where famously a 17-year-old girl Betty Corrigall was driven to suicide in the late 1770s after becoming pregnant by a visiting sailor; one of the band members was visited by Betty in a dream, in which she told him to create an album about Orkney.
The music itself was enjoyable, with particular stand-out tracks being the rousing ‘Betty Corrigall’ and the delicate ‘Nethertons Teeth’, and the musicians made a strong effort to engage with the audience to create a warm and relaxed atmosphere. However, although most of the music was expertly composed, and the musicianship was almost faultless, the songs tended to lack anything truly gripping or distinctive, and despite their obvious talent the music unfortunately lacked personality.
6/10
Words: Frances Black