A career spent as a voice actor and audiobook narrator after studying at the precursor to the LIPA, dMh’s musical releases have been sporadic and eclectic. An album of contemporary classical music, a single featuring Stephen Fry’s narration of Andrew Copson, alongside features on BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC Radio 2, have all led him to his most recent project, LP Songs From The North.
With artwork from filmmaker and animator Nick Park, Songs From The North sees the artist cover eleven iconic tracks written by bands formed toward the top of the UK. Representing a vast range of genres and eras through a fresh lens is an ever-enticing listening experience. The album is at its best when listened to blindly, allowing the listener to slowly discover what it is they’re hearing, something that brings a huge smile to your face as lyrics and melodies from your favourite tracks emerge from the arrangement. dMh holds a love and respect for the songwriters on show, homaging their work with a sense of individuality and authenticity. From The Beatles to The Smiths to Oasis, making the project cohesive is no easy feat, but its something that feels so effortless as you journey through history.
dMh shares high thoughts on the project, “The idea for this album came whilst tinkering with a version of She’s Lost Control by the famously northern Joy Division, and having previously released a couple of singles which were covers of songs from other bands with connections to the northern reaches of the UK (Jethro Tull, Blackpool, and The Fall, Manchester), plus having recorded many years earlier an unreleased version of Come Together by four scousers, I realised I was possibly subconsciously working my way to an album’s worth of covers by northern bands, and so being a northerner myself (Preston) decided it would be fun to actually complete the task and find a bunch more northern songs to be subjected to varying degrees of mutilation.
There’s an unintentional bias towards North West England in the final selection with only Bill Nelson and The Human League from the other side of the Pennines, Scotland being solely represented by The Blue Nile (unless you allow for the fact that Tull’s frontman and main songwriter Ian Anderson was born in Dunfermline) and nothing from Durham/Northumberland alas. If there’s ever a SFTN vol. 2 however, this will be rectified, plus the inclusion of that She’s Lost Control cover if I finally get it finished and sounding something like it does in my head!”
