Macwood Fleet: My Song Of 2016: Ange Hardy & Lukas Drinkwater

Saturday 31 December 2016

My Song Of 2016: Ange Hardy & Lukas Drinkwater - By The Tides

2016 - well, that was a year for the future historians. It was as if someone had grabbed hold of the game board and just threw it up in the air, letting the pieces fall as they will.

The only constant, as usual, seemed to be music. Although 2016 decided it was a year to take more than it's fair share of Musicians up to The Great Gig In The Sky.

There have been some tremendous songs released this year. Most tucked away on various albums that the mass market won't even get a chance to hear on the National Airwaves. It's been up to the independent Disc Spinners to ensure these songs at least get a chance to be heard on the radio waves.

So BIG LOVE to Disc Spinners such as Adam Wilson, Alex Huskisson, Chris Giles, Del Day etc for helping bring these great songs to their audience.

Nobody could have failed to notice the turmoil around the world this year. The musicians certainly haven't. Again, it's left to the artists of the world to truly describe what we are feeling - not the newspapers or media who all have their own separate agendas.

By The Tides is Ange Hardy & Lukas Drinkwater's response to the tragic scenes of the people of Syria desperately trying to make their way over the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.

So many who saw the photograph of that child being brought dead out of the sea were moved by what they saw. But very few had a response such as this.

Delicate, heartbreaking and so, so moving, By The Tides captivates from the moment you hear it.

As I sit and write this, Top Of The Pops is showing on the TV. With it's plastic pop and commercially driven music, it is the total antithesis of what By The Tides stands for.

So often, it is left to what are perceived as Folk performers to tell the stories and describe life the way it is. And they are so often underappreciated for their efforts. But it's songs such as this that will, in the end, stand the test of time as future historians and musicians look to the past for information and inspiration.

Ange Hardy & Lukas Drinkwater have written a modern classic.