Esben and the Witch - Esben and the Witch EP

Ethereal romanticist folksters Esben and the Witch take their moniker from a Danish fairytale and fully live up to their literary flights of fancy, playing dark, twinkling, songs pregnant with menace and brooding, evoked by spooky guitars and dour female vocals. Whilst the twee constituency is often understood to consist of educated middle-class types who readily partake in melancholic tree-hugging whilst wishing they'd lived next door to Shelley and Byron 200 years ago, Esben engage more than the niche listener and kick everybody's ass by being, well, really good. Their witchery conjures up Bjork walking a more introspective path, or Beth Orton singing about her secret passion for live-action role playing; Richard Dawkins might not approve, but it's enchanting nonetheless.