One of the greatest undiscovered British bands of the past thirty years are surely Liverpool group The Onset. They released a pioneering country-roots album in 'The Pool of Life' (1988) on Geoff Davies' legendary Probe Plus label years before 'Americana' was a recognised genre, while their posthumous second collection 'The Onset' was made up of later sessions which proved they'd forged a tough, Britpop-related sound of their own a good 18 months before Oasis smashed their way into the public's consciousness.
Led by charismatic singer/songwriter and ex-La's founder Mike Badger, The Onset had serious musical strength in depth. Future Lightning Seed Paul Hemmings featured for several years while in Danny Dean, they had a classic lead guitarist capable of adding his sonic stamp to a variety of genres.
Hailing from Bath, bassist SI COUSINS was the one non-Merseyside native in the band. His CV also includes a stint with The Catfish and a pre-Onset spell with anarchic Wiltshire outfit Ophiuchus, but his wonderfully melodic playing fitted in with The Onset like an envelope around a cheque.
Consequently, I was aware of Cousins' abilities as a consummate musician, but I didn't know he had been working on new songs of his own. A quick visit to his MySpace, however, shows just how many little acoustic jewels he's been polishing up of late.
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Of these, 'Love's Counterfeit' and 'Broken Dreams' should be your first ports of call. Both are presented in downhome and unhurried folk-pop style, showcasing a fluid finger-picking style and a gentle, unobtrusive voice which nonetheless carries a determined presence.
These are early days for Si Cousins. He may have plans for developing these songs (and he's plenty more besides) but for now I would suggest you check out what he's doing here and ideally get yourself down to one of his low-key live shows. There's a mission to both soothe your soul and quietly sweep you off your feet going ahead here, so you'd be foolish not to succumb.
Si Cousins on MySpace
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