Viewfinder

After disbanding his Edinburgh based noise-rock band and dropping out of university, Joel Burton returned home to London disillusioned. Using cheap synths, an FX unit, and some multi-track cassettes as his compass, he set about re-discovering how to write songs with subtlety and meaning. The result is Viewfinder’s ‘Born Ticking’, a collection of home recordings that manage to seamlessly combine Joel’s love of alt-country, post-punk, minimalist classical, jazz and the golden eras of both 90s indie rockers and 60s songwriters.

The songs on ‘Born Ticking’ come from a place of low energy and rootless inspiration. Joel’s free-associating lyrics wander from childhood memories to ruminations on dying, from interpersonal misfires to (mal)adjusting to adulthood, from struggles with self-love to finding unexpected beauty. The music is ambitiously constructed yet deeply human, managing to combine wilful imperfection with meticulously crafted composition. There is melancholy, sadness, and a rumbling undercurrent of anger – yet creeping out of ‘Born Ticking’s meditative tape-hiss is a profound sense of hope.

Memorials Of Distinction