The Milk and Honey Band first emerged when they released Round The Sun for Rough Trade in 1994. Robert White, ex-guitarist/keyboard player with frazzled psychedelic rock band Levitation, and The Milk and Honey Band’s helmsman, recorded the album on an 8 track reel to reel and closed the record with the sound of two blackbirds, one outside the window of his flat, the other down the end of the street, having a dawn conversation. If this sounds like a low-key release, well, it was – but one warmly received by critics and public alike.??In 1997 Robert signed to BMG Publishing and in 2000 released Boy From The Moon on Manchester’s Uglyman Records, a label that counted Elbow and I Am Kloot amongst its ranks. Again the record was well received, not least by a certain Andy Partridge of XTC who fell head over heels in love with it. Andy contacted Robert and asked whether he would consider making a new record for his new label Ape. Being a huge fan of XTC, Robert naturally complied and the subsequent recordings became the band’s third studio album The Secret Life Of The Milk And Honey Band released in 2004.


In 2006, Robert began work on the follow-up to Secret Life, a record that would become Dog Eared Moonlight. Robert reveals: 'I was intent that it feature a mixture of styles, I always liked that on records by artists I love like The Beatles. Look at Revolver or Sgt Pepper or the White Album - so diverse, loud stuff mixed amongst acoustic. No rules as long as it all flows together. I like dynamic shifts in music and I think this record has that.’ Perhaps more poignantly, he adds, ‘I think there's been about 100 different versions of what this album should be but in the end I knew I wanted a simple 10 song record.' Indeed there is something of a well-honed feel to Dog Eared Moonlight, almost as if the record has been filtered through a perfection monitor so that all that’s left is the cream. Listeners will find themselves recalling the finer shades of bands like Shack, Spiritualised and Simon and Garfunkel whilst Robert’s vocals might remind some people of Wire’s Colin Newman – if they weren’t so delicately interwoven with slide guitars and gentle harmonies. It’s a beautiful record and one well worth waiting for.

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