Molly Bancroft

(exerpt)...
The 12-track set includes four songs each with vocalists MOLLY BANCROFT - including the first single "Tracking Treasure Down," already a hit overseas - and Jan Burton, plus three instrumentals... BANCROFT, for example, is a folk-rock singer who has toured with the Indigo Girls, an unusual choice for progressive dance music. But her unadorned, just-me-and-my-guitar delivery, combined with Gabriel and Dresden's precise, springy beats, make for a new, uniquely American sound..." - BILLBOARD magazine, May 06

CD REVIEW:
Gabriel & Dresden
Organized Nature
review by Simon Ros
May 2006

Rating: 8/10
Gabriel & Dresden
Gabriel & Dresden
www.gabrielanddresden.com

After a string of successful single releases, remixes and co-productions, Gabriel & Dresden’s debut album is with us at last. The duo serve up twelve brand new tracks and are joined by vocalists Jan Burton and Molly Bancroft.

The opening track, ‘Let Go’, begins in a suitably down tempo fashion, with sparkling synths and resonating pads building the track slowly before the kick crashes. Molly Bancroft’s clean, crisp vocals compliment the music perfectly and together they form something that gets the feet moving.
- Progressivehouse.com

Gabriel & Dresden – Gabriel & Dresden
Organized Nature

On their self titled album Josh Gabriel and Dave Dresden have created 12 diverse tracks combining techno beats, house rhythms, trance, electronica elements and organic instruments. They have over the years delivered many outstanding tracks and mixes under their own name and under their alias Motorcycle created some of the best vocal trance tracks in newer time – just think “As The Rush Comes”. On the album you can experience wonderfully lush melodies like “Let Go” with vocals by Molly Bancroft who also sings on other 3 powerful tracks including the single release from the album “Tracking Treasure Down”. Beside Molly the duo has collaborated with Jan Burton and Scarlett Ettiene. Gabriel and Dresden debut album is a strong statement that dance music can be so much more. (CA)
Rating: 8 / 10

- Clubbing Magazine

CD Review: Gabriel & Dresden - Organized Nature

It's hard to imagine that a remake of the old Kansas chestnut "Dust in the Wind" could find new life as an indie/alt rock vocal over an eletcro-tech-trance-house dance beat. And even more bizarre, that it would be so fucking good.

But San Francisco dj/producer duo Josh Gabriel and Dave Dresden do all that and more on their debut album Organized Nature. From the massive club hit "Tracking Treasure Down" (don't miss the Francis Preve remix) to standout tracks like "One Step Closer" and "Enemy," this scorching mix of vintage guitar, high tech gadgetry, powerful lyrics, and engaging melodies is kicking dance floor ass all over the US and Europe.

Vocals on "Dust in the Wind," "One Step Closer," and two other songs are handled by Atlanta's indie rock vocalist Molly Bancroft, and four others, including "Enemy" are sung by London-based Josh Burton, whose voice at times bears an uncanny resemblance to that of David Sylvian.

It's true that Gabriel & Dresden are best known for producing the massive trance hits "As the Rush Comes" by Motorcycle and "Way Out West" by Mindcircus, but a little trance goes a long way with me, and I loved this album. Although frankly dance music and certainly electronic, it plays with the boundaries of many genres, including rock and pop, for a sound that's easily recognizable as their own.

Gabriel & Dresden have also done remixing chores on songs by Annie Lennox, Dido, Sarah McLachlan, Depeche Mode, and a number of other artists. This is the first release on their own label, also called "Organized Nature."

By the way, you don't have to take my word for it... the album is streaming free.
- Kingsnake.com

Molly Bancroft's name has been linked to a constellation of female pop stars. There's Sarah McLachlan, the sensitive remix princess, and Suzanne Vega, master of erratic pleasantness. There's also the very indie Beth Orton and her calculated mix of style and soul. All of these touchpoints make good selling points for Bancroft, but dropping their names is no more accurate than comparing her to George Michael. Such comparisons only tell you that Bancroft's voice is high, thin and girly, but also flexible; she can hit lower-octave notes like Michael and the other girls, and she can wrap her tongue around one word in 10,000 different ways. As with every talented artist, though, Bancroft has no single talent that's precisely the same as someone else's. She carves each syllable and note into a sound all her own. Her voice is a genuine gift that would get high marks on any Star Search program, and she takes it to another level. Rather than dragging her notes out like a wacked-out Whitney Houston, she delivers short, sharp phrases with emphases in unexpected places. Her skills prove most effective when she's matched up with the dance music that dominates Get Closer. Dusty Springfield and Kylie Minogue have fit well with the Pet Shop Boys, and so would Bancroft. She also cherry-picks effectively from her past experiences. From her former band, Lift, she borrows Joan Jett swagger for some effortless snarls and meows. She deftly employs her jazz experience, too, treating each song like a group of elements she can organize however she damn pleases. Like a scat singer, Bancroft swoons over moments that seem randomly selected, but always conveys love for her material. She stands apart from other great Friday night cool-down music because her vibe is all about infatuation; this is not confessional Nick Drake material, but she plays it with the same intimacy. Her quiet approach might be another inspiration for all those McLachlan comparisons, but the material is far different -- the angst is more manageable, and there's a better emotional balance. The highs and lows are more attuned to a healthy person's own sensibilities, making the music more approachable. Whereas Bancroft's peers seem willing to stab themselves in the back, if only to get your attention, Bancroft possesses a shocking confidence that builds upon her gifts. She opens her mouth and encourages you to Get Closer, and she knows that you will. Her music is love with a healthy heartbeat. -- Theodore Defosse - Splendid Ezine

Gabriel and Dresden
(Organized Nature)

The seeds that the San Francisco-based production duo sowed several years ago are now starting to flourish, as listeners to this solidly constructed eponymous debut, will attest.

Built upon a foundation of contemporary studio gadgets, trusty Moog and Roland synths and a brace of vocalists, Josh Gabriel and Dave Dresden have, in the main, created a high-octane opus of electronica. A blend of vintage guitars, electric bass and tech-etched beats drives the majority of the project with "Sydney", a throbbing instrumental, and the ethereal Molly Bancroft-sung "Tracking Treasure Down", two of the best.

Owing much to the styling of Sarah McLachlan, Atlanta-based Bancroft appears on a quartet of tracks, including the first single, "Tracking Treasure Down". As does Londoner Jan Burton best known for his work with Syntax a few years back whose nonchalant delivery sounds more at one with the production, not least on tracks like "Enemy" and "Dangerous Power" which has a distinct David Sylvian twang to it.

With a number of high profile awards already to their name, and having just remixed the Oscar winning theme song from Brokeback Mountain, G&D could soon find themselves the haut couture of club culture.

Reviewer: Lewis Dene
- BBC.CO.UK (BBC radio one)

MOLLY BANCROFT Get Closer (ReyBan) * * * *
For longtime observers of Molly Bancroft's flirtation with folk and rock and everything in between, it shouldn't come as any great surprise that her solo debut, Get Closer, corresponds to sonic profiles exhibited amongst her musical female peer group. The reverent piano of Tori Amos ("Get Closer"), the electronic burble of Beth Orton ("Dance Song"), the folk-pop bruise of Suzanne Vega ("Funky Little Mouth") and the soaring anthemics of Sarah McLachlan ("Run Away") alternately poke their heads into the frame, as the former Lift frontwoman moves from one genre to the next with suprising grace. = Even with Bancroft's minor stylistic shifts between songs, her material retains a cohesive = sound by virtue of muscular songwriting; fiercely confessional in lyric, bedrock solid in composition and arrangement, offering many of the best elements of contemporaries like Jonatha Brooke and John Gorka. With stunning clarity, Bancroft distills all she's heard = and known over her decade-long career into Get Closer's strikingly singular presentation. -Brian Baker - PASTE MAGAZINE

LIFT: September EP
Startingly confessional lyrics reveal MOLLY BANCROFT to be a keenly sensitive artist who leaves nothing of herself behind when approaching her music. Or maybe it's the other way around. "Molly, you gotta always be on stage," she chides herself on the beautifully plaintive "Turn Away." "Mesmerize" finds her agonizing over the uncertainties of a relationship, while "Need to Know" finds her shattered upon learning of the "other woman." "Even If (it is Love)" blends Lift's perceptible Kitchens of Distinction influence with Sarah McLachlan's "Possession." Rolling alterna-pop guitars and gorgeous harmonies beguile and charm throughout the disc, despite the emotionally taxing subjects." - The Big Takeover

LIFT: September EP
Lift may be just be the most aptly named band in Atlanta. Make that anywhere. This solid trio of guitarist/ vocalist molly bancroft, drum diva Simone Simonton, and bassist Meimi Sato churn out hard-edged, assured songs that soar so high, everyone's soon flying together on this most magic of carpet rides.

That updraft lifts Bancroft, too; when she's reaching for a note, she's up on her toes, all sharpness and intensity, all angles and planes. If she weren't such a firestorm, you might call her adorable. And watching Bancroft and her bandmates slam back down to earth, even as they're doing the same to you, is no less of a treat but "adorable" doesn't begin to cover it - they're too genuinely tough and too downright good.

So is their new CD September. With lyrics that turn on adime from melencholic comfort to switchblade sharpness, every song is ridiculously ready for the radio and more. The first cut "Even if (it is love)" is a sparkling standout you'll be singing for days. "Turn Away" too is elegiac and luminous, with a melody that never quite winds up where you expect it to. Consequesently, neither do you - and that's why you won't be able to take September out of your CD player any more than you'll be able to leave the room while these women have the stage. Catch them while you can. -- Regan Kelly - performer magazine

Singer Molly Bancroft lifts Lift above the ordinary
by Jonathan Perry

It would be too easy to brush by Lift’s “Lifelike” (Daemon HHHH) while hunting down far more famous fare in your favorite record store. But by all means, don’t let this one get away. Strong, swear-you’ve-heard-it-somewhere-before hooks (you haven’t) and smart, disciplined songwriting make this Atlanta (band’s) second album a major sleeper of 1997. Fresh from its well-received full-length debut, “Stellar,” (Lyric Moon Records), Lift again fuses the unbeatable combination of memorable songs with stellar, poised musicianship that frames singer/songwriter Molly Bancroft’s bracingly bittersweet vocals.

Unlike some female vocalists who come across as too girly-girl cute or cloyingly heartfelt in this game (guys have their own stylistic annoyances too, believe me), Bancroft sings with just the right balance of power and restraint. And what comes out is a voice as clear and strong as a church bell ringing on a crisp Sunday morning. Bancroft’s emotionally uncompromising songs are beautifully augmented by ...drummer Simone Simonton who give(s) them dimension, depth, and range. Tracks including the album’s opener, “Let Us Be,” and the heartbreaking yet oddly resolute “Sorry Doesn’t Say” ooze confidence and conviction. Through it all, the band adds telling, heightening detail to the strong brush strokes of Bancroft’s portraits. - Weekend Insider