Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Language may be a living breathing entity, an important part of what it means to be human, yet it has the despondency, the frightening ability to disappear if not nurtured and cared for. The Cornish language, spoken by so few people in the lands surrounded by the northern waters of Europe was very much in danger of dying out, of becoming as endangered as the once thriving tin mines, yet as the superb Duo that make up The Changing Room, Tanya Brittain and Sam Kelly, note in their third release of the year, The Magic of Christmas is enough to turn any tide and make language loved.

The seemingly inexhaustible The Changing Room certainly offer their fans a Nadelik Lowen (Happy Christmas) with their three track E.P. and the surprise of a cover included in the trio of songs that will put a different slant on the fruitful offerings heard this winter. Momentum is such that on the back of their other releases this year, their second album Picking up the Pieces and the beautiful E.P. The Lost Gardens of Heligan, Names On A Wall, that this E.P. is so looked forward to and to be admired without measure.

The three tracks, There’s Magic In Christmas Eve, a splendid rendition of The Pretender’s 2000 Miles and Silent Night, both of which are sang so sweetly and with dramatic tension in Cornish, ride over the emotions as a swell buffets the edge of Mousehole Bay, causing the fishing boats to take on the swell and seek safer waters and yet with the dogged determination of the Cornish people to sing great tales of heroism in its wake.

A sublime E.P. released in time for the winter festivities, something different, something very beautiful and not tarnished by want, greed or copious corporate materialism and covetousness. The Magic of Christmas may be missing in many lives, its tendons and fingers dipping too much into the pride of receiving, yet somewhere inside the border of Cornwall, The Changing Room wish their listeners a very Nadelik Lowen.

Ian D. Hall