December 10th, 2021 sees the release of “The Year Of The Ox”, the first new music from Edinburgh outfit New Leaf since 1999. It is preceded by lead track “Raincloud” on November 26th, which is accompanied by a video created by leading Australian author Felice Arena.
Originally formed in 1994 around the song writing partnership of singer Andy Kelly and multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Thoms, the band stubbornly swam against the prevailing Brit Pop, dance and grunge tide. Drawing on easy listening, folk/country rock, blue eyed soul, jazz, reggae and orch-pop influences, Kelly and Thoms wrote a collection of songs which attracted the attention of Japanese stained-glass artist Yoshiro Oyama. He subsequently became their manager and secured a deal with Sony/Epic Japan via his own independent label Foundation.
The band released three albums: “On Safari”, “Stereophonic” and “Panorama” in 1995, ‘97 and ‘99 respectively, before calling it a day.
In the early noughties the Kelly/Thoms songwriting partnership was revived with a collection of fourteen new songs. Recruiting original New Leaf member John Hall on bass, plus drummer David Mack, guitarist Andy Stevenson, harpist Sophie Askew and trumpeter Reginaldo Dias, a prospective album was recorded. However, fate conspired against its completion, with all seven participants going their separate ways.
Fast forward to 2020/21, and lockdown draws Kelly and Thoms back to the abandoned project. With new overdubs, remixing and mastering completed in Thoms’ home studio, the album has been finished at last.
Once again drawing on the eclectic influences of their earlier work, “The Year Of The Ox” is a timeless collection of songs which simultaneously sounds totally contemporary.
Aswell as creating the video for “Raincloud”, Felice Arena has provided the striking visuals for the project’s artwork, which commemorates the Chinese year of the ox, the year of both Kelly and Thoms’ birth.
