James Yuill - White Crow mp3

I caught James Yuill at a record label showcase about two or three years ago, in Whitechapel, on the lineup with Catherine Anne Davies. At the time he was mixing his acoustic set with Aphex Twin-like samples from a laptop he had by his side, so when I purchased his cd, I was slightly miffed by the fact that this sampling innovation was the exception (on the hidden track), while the rest of the songs were him and his guitar for the most part.
However, the album (The Vanilla Disc) was actually great, and has been eating up my iPod space for ages. I sporadically checked back to see what he was up to in the intervening period, but not much was materialising (it didn't occur to me to join the mailing list - d'uh), so when I randomly checked back today, I was greeted with a whole newly designed web site, along with the news that he released a new album - in January 2007. According to his site, he was even invited along for a BBC Radio 1 session, and had a slot at the 1 Big Weekend (video and pics from BBC website).
Well, as the blogs have noted, now he has got a new single out, No Surprise (link to Rough Trade online Shop), released as a vinyl (no good to me, I need to settle into a house long enough to justify the purchase of a turntable...), and limited to 500 copies - although it's unclear how many are left.

The mp3 I am providing is from his first album, and its a gorgeous song, White Crow, more typical of his early works than the new folktronica direction he has taken since. Listen out for more of him in the near future, and I intend to keep on top of news of him in coming weeks, so watch this space.

MP3: James Yuill - White Crow.mp3
Buy James from his website shop