With summer a distant memory, the nights drawing in and the temperature plummeting, you’d be forgiven in thinking there was nothing left to look forward to this year. You’d be wrong, however, as Kola’s debut EP Ruins is here – and it’s a cracker!

Featuring Ryan Jones (ex-Hitchcock Rules/Grey Dog), Harry Harding (People’s String Collective), Dan Cole and Annie Gray, Kola are the band to keep your ears cosy through the cold winter nights and barrage of crappy Christmas hits and XFactory manufactured pop.

Recorded in the winter of 2010/11 in a studio affectionately known as ‘The Orphanage’, Ruins is a well-crafted piece of folk-pop that (thankfully) contradicts the studio’s rather bleak title, complete with backing brass and strings that the band have showcased at festivals and other live dates since their inception.

From the moment you hit play, there are infectious folky shuffles to get you and your mum dancing across the kitchen floor and slower, delicate tales for downtime in front of the fire with your beloved. There are also stories of shaving heads, ‘skin canoes’, and houses with cellophane windows in the mix.

The subject matter may be varied, but the quality of songwriting and musicianship from Kola is a joy to listen to, bubbling pleasantly to the surface in each offering of the four-track EP.

Released on 10^th November, Ruins is far from a crumbling castle, and will stand strong against the elements if Kola continue to fizz at their current rate. (Matt Nicholas)

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