Glass Ankle are a four piece folk-pop band from Macclesfield who take their name from a recurring sports injury suffered by front man Greg Jackson.
These two tracks were written while Jackson was living in Matsumoto, Japan. As with the 2009 EP, If You've Been There, he draws inspiration from the 11 months he spent in Japan as an EFL teacher.
His songs have a gentle, unassuming and optimistic tone; almost child-like in the sense of wonder. So much so that they only just manage to stay the right side of twee.
"Feeling alright today - sun's in the sky" are among the English lines and presumably the Japanese lyrics are equally affirmative (the title, 'Kyo wa ii hi', translates as 'Today is a good day').
The other song , Fuji, is based on memories of climbing Mt Fuji and reaching the summit in time to view the setting sun.
The cover image for the CD is a detail from Katsushika Hokusai's Mount Fuji Seem Through The Cherry Blossom.
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To flesh out his musical vision, Jackson recruited three musicians as his backing band, which includes his Japanese teacher, Chika Woodward, on percussion.
Both tracks are available for free download from Last.Fm but if you want to contribute to the band's finances you can buy "hand-knitted monkeys with poorly ankles" from their their merchandise stand.
Needless to say, this is not a band who are only in it for the money!
Glass Ankle on Myspace
Glass Ankle at Last.Fm
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