“Fanfarlo are a potent reminder that, beneath the hype, music still finds a way to ambush you.”

“Treasure this band, they may just make the next few years much more bearable.” (Read more)

“Try and name one thing you can get for one dollar, and I guarantee it won’t be as good as this!”

Blogging about Reservoir

“Blessed with a winning romanticism… an incandescent tumble of horns, strings and glockenspiel that could melt the iciest of hearts”

“Gorgeous pop baroque”

“A sublime, beautiful, impassioned stunner”

“Pitched between Arcade Fire’s funereal art-rock and Beirut’s pastoral folk, but lacking the pomposity of the former and the pretentiousness of the latter, London-based collective Fanfarlo’s debut is a carefully orchestrated treat. The instrumentation is kitchen-sink; accordion, clarinet, glockenspiel, mandolin, melodica, saw, sax, trumpet and violin, plus guitars, bass and drums. Simon Balthazar’s we’ll-crafted songs, though, and the band’s knack of arranging them sensitively, ensures the mix never sounds cluttered or overblown. There are big pop moments here too: string-swept album highlight ‘The Walls Are Coming Down’, new single ‘Drowning Men’ and ‘Fire Escape’. If you’re waiting patiently for that new Grizzly Bear LP, take a dip.”
8/10 (Rob Webb)

“The Best English (sic) album we’ve heard in years”

“What a delightful discovery: We’d never heard of the band before stopping by the church, but were excited by the idea that we’d be able to sit down for awhile, and by the time their set was over we were standing in the pews and forking over a tenner in exchange for a copy of their debut album, Reservoir.” (Nick Marino)

“In the scale of its aspirations and the intricacy of its production, ‘Reservoir’ is a million miles away from the stereotypical self-released debut. It’s overwhelming, humbling and hauntingly beautiful” – Clash feature