Another beautiful set from this indie folk singer-songwriter, borne out of meditations on lockdown.
After finding favour with AUK a couple of years back with his last EP ‘Islands’, Josh Geffin, still relatively unknown, has come up with another beautiful quartet of songs on his latest EP ‘Hold on to the Light’ . Where ‘Islands’ was clearly a folk album, the latest is a little more diverse with mild country elements and use of synths instead of acoustic piano to place it well within Americana territory.
He is a formidable finger-picking acoustic guitarist but this EP contains some really excellent electric guitar and various synths, plus the addition of the stunning Victoria Hume on harmony and backing vocals. He has a warm inviting voice which he puts to good and emotional effect on all the songs, talking of which this is a moving collection, largely driven by experience during the pandemic. The title track, with lovely acoustic guitar, stems from the sight of graffiti etched into the sea wall at Brighton during one of the long walks that Geffin took to keep his sanity during lockdown “strange times are you keeping well? Yeah surviving but who can tell, no matter how dark it gets, hold on to the light”. The opener ‘Will you come back from the war’ compares the similarities between war and the pandemic lockdown, set to a nice chugging guitar, some cool electric guitar and great vocals from Hume. She also appears on the lovely ‘Best we could’, another beautiful acoustic guitar- led song on the theme of difficulties in a relationship. The last track, ‘Dead Stars’, on the theme of being led by a higher power, has the most country elements, with a chorus which could easily fit into any number of standard country albums. This is a lovely EP, short but perfectly formed. Hopefully Geffin will be in a position to deliver a full length album next, and this would surely raise his profile – he deserves to be heard. He is very good.
