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OK, news first, Jamie Ward purveyor of fine sounds courtesy of Dark Dark Horse (whose Centuries album got an honourable mention here) and music producer available for christenings, bar mitzvahs and other social occasions (OK that bit’s made up), has done a number on the Fossil Collective’s track, Without A Fight. The track can generously be downloaded for free from a Pledge Music site or indeed direct from their FB pages – its free, so why wouldn’t you get it? Oh and there’s an animated video to accompany it (below) made up of an edited version of ‘The Mermaid’ by animator Aleksandr Petrov.

Being new to the Collective I wasn’t able to make a comparison with the original version but the sumptuous animation fits rather nicely with the haunting remix of this track. My appetite whetted I dug a little deeper into the Collective, first to listen to the original track which is rather beautiful on its own account. Their EP The Honey Slides was released last summer, and can be listened to from the FB pages and purchased via iTunes if you are minded, and an album is presaged for sometime soon.

Messr Fendick and Hooker produce some gorgeous sounds here and I regret not having got to them sooner. By their own definition they sit in that somewhat crowed space these days labelled indie-folk and comparisons will be made with Fleet Foxes and perhaps more accurately Midlake, not that this is in way way a criticism.

There is always a little space in my listening pleasure for music such as this, and how nice to be able to look a bit closer to home than the more frequent glance across the Atlantic. Lets hope that promised album and the trailed animations isn’t too long in appearing.