Peter Broderick

in just a few short years multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, composer and all round renaissance man Peter Broderick has shot from being a darling of the underground to something far more substantial. Constantly touring, Peter has accrued fans far and wide with his alluring folk songs and gorgeous post-classical compositions, but all this had to start somewhere.

A few years ago Peter was kind enough to send Type a package of all his material prior to writing ‘Float’. This came in the form of two CDRs, lovingly hand-labelled ‘4 Track Songs’. Recorded to tape using only a cheap microphone, Peter assembled these tracks as and when they came to his head. From delicate piano improvisations to fully fledged songs more reminiscent of ‘Home’ this is a charming and heart-warming portal into Peter’s early creative process. More than that though, these songs are so defiant in their hazy, lo-fi beauty that they stand on their own as pieces that can never possibly be repeated.

Moving from track to track with all the grace of that chunky stop button on a cassette recorder, we are treated to both volumes of Peter’s early recordings and although they might have been released before, they actually never sold a single copy. Peter ended up giving them away to lucky friends and relatives as the general public had no idea of what they were missing out on. Through dedications (‘For Dave’) to get-well-soon messages (‘Jenn is Sick’) to simple musings on life (‘Three Cats’) each song seems to come straight from the heart and is untroubled by the trappings of modern production. This is pure, simple and ineffably beautiful music which shows the beginnings of a truly special talent