Joshua Caole
Moon Palace is the first full album from Cardiff songwriter Joshua Caole.
The album gains it’s title from the Paul Auster book. Released on Bullo Pill Recordings, much of the material accumulated during the long hours spent constantly touring across 2011 with a large part of the songs penned on long drives or after late nights.
The recording itself finally took place in Cardiff in January 2012 with producer Llion Robertson (Gentle Good, Eugene Francis Jr), with whom Joshua previously worked with on Joshua 2010 EP Slow Hearts.
Caole’s music evokes the American songwriting greats like Gram Parsons yet simultaneously tiptoes along the lines of alt rock, post punk and folkier climbs.
What binds these disparate influences together and makes Caole’s music distinctive is his rough-with-the-smooth combination of coarse, velvet vocals with clean, beautiful ringwheeling guitar parts.
Combining the commanding songwriting of Elliot Smith with the vocal fragility of Bright Eyes; tales of misspent nights and love not quite won makes Moon Palace an impressive, impassioned collection of songs.
After releasing his EP Slow Hearts in December 2010, Joshua Caole spent much of 2011 playing in cramped, dark rooms in the UK and Europe including supports with superb acts such as Smoke Fairies, Sarabeth Tucek, Slaid Cleaves, Jodie Marie and Charlie Parr - to name just a few - and appearing at festivals including, Lounge on the Farm, Apple Cart and Swn.
The year was topped off with a slot at the O2 arena in London in their December Sessions season. Joshua has been championed on BBC Radio Wales by Adam Walton and Bethan Elfyn, with regular airplay on BBC Wales, BBC 6 Music and Amazing Radio. In February 2012 the single ‘Wish You Were Where’ from Slow Hearts featured as BBC Radio Wales single of the week.