Dry the River – Shaker Hymns (Best Fit Session)

Festival favourites and probably one of the hardest-working bands around right now, Dry the River have described themselves as “folky gospel music played by a post-punk band”. To be fair, that’s a pretty good description of the sound that’s earned them a loyal fanbase and an ever-growing popularity. They have an in-built swagger and an edge that’s head-and-shoulders above their contemporaries – part of the formula that earned the London five-piece a BBC Sound of 2012 nomination six months back.

Against the playful drizzle of a sleepy Friday afternoon in Brighton, we met up with the guys for a Best Fit Session. Under the arches near the Concorde 2 venue – where they’d just played a rapturous set as part of The Great Escape – they performed the beautiful ‘Shaker Hymns’, a song musically and lyrically as rich as any from debut record Shallow Bed.