Angel
Our friends at The Cage wrote wonderfully about New Pine Overcoat / Angel
“Hovercraft keeps finding new ways to make familiar feelings hit with startling force.”
“Angel proves Hovercraft knows exactly how to make vulnerability sound triumphant.”
“Hovercraft delivers the kind of release that reminds you why music matters.”
Mike Mineo over at Obscure Sounds reviewed New Pine Overcoat / Angel:
“…Warm, folk-rooted guitar tones… dreamy vocal intoxication… heartbreak-laden introspection”
Both these tracks are quality displays of songwriting and heartfelt emotion
Illustrate Magazine reviewed New Pine Overcoat / Angel and Blown Away.
fragile art rescued from oblivion
a messy and vulnerable final flare shot into the void
New Pine Overcoat / Angel reviewed in Apricot Magazine:
“…like an apparition from the mid-90s… a drifting folk descent… a joke, a warning, a prophecy… a gentle unraveling”
subtle, poetic, and quietly devastating
A little closer to Grimsby, Graeme Smith’s York Calling reviewed New Pine Overcoat / Angel.
…never stops sounding beautiful and sweet.
Big thanks to Miguel Castillo for his amazing reviews at La Caverna.
New Pine Overcoat / Angel: “…the spirit of a youth oscillating between idealism and fatalism….evoking a world where hope and exhaustion coexist…a devastating portrait of loss, dependency, and bitter resilience.”
…a double release that perfectly embodies its raw, emotional and deeply human aesthetic.
Blown Away: “…the fantasy of escaping reality while admitting the impossibility of sustaining a heroic facade….addictions, disenchantment, vulnerability and the desperate search for meaning.”
…an acidic portrait of British youth, drenched in endless nights and existential disorientation.
A couple of really terrific reviews over at Hit Harmony Haven.
New Pine Overcoat/ Angel: “…raw, human, and unmistakably real… the kind of lyric Britpop could have produced but rarely did… ahead of its time… an emotional arc that feels less like a demo reconstruction and more like a cinematic short film.”
Hovercraft’s revival is not simply nostalgic, but restorative. It bridges time, technology, memory, and grief, turning the act of musical resurrection into an artistic statement of its own.
And Blown Away: “…an emotional excavation… stylish, restless, and subtly melancholic beneath the adrenaline… swagger laid over vulnerability, noise layered over doubt… hypnotic soundscapes… a unique dream-blues sensibility.”
Hovercraft presents not the polished fantasy of what the band could have been, but the flawed, brilliant, beating heart of what it was.
Our friends at Sinusoidal in India reviewed New Pine Overcoat / Angel and Blown Away.
a chance to face the pain, instead of running away from it.
Songwriting, with purpose
Dave Franklin reviewed New Pine Overcoat (“brilliantly mercurial”) and Angel (“wonderfully not quite what it seems”) at The Big Takeover.
What would the Hovercraft story have been had they gone the distance? What would the modern popscape look like today if things had been different? We can only imagine.
Fred Bambridge at It’s All Indie described New Pine Overcoat as “mesmerising” and was “astounded that [Angel] is a 30-year-old track.”
I just feel bad as if this came out in the 90s I honestly feel like the whole world would know about Hovercraft.
Another lyrical and evocative review from our Brazilian friends at Music For All.
Shake, rattle and roll?
There’s plenty of hiss on the old original tape audio from which this new version was created, and you can certainly hear Mr Shimble rattling around on his drum kit. An alternative translation might be: “The track is supported by the ride cymbal’s consistent shimmer (which gives it that raw lo-fi texture) and the snare’s rhythmic rattle, while the sweet fragile female vocal fills the lyrical space, graced by a careful but sufficient bassline.”
“…romantic guitars that reshape into the unusual angles of Mazzy Star.”
“The song unfolds like something out of Phoebe Bridger’s Punisher, taking its time to reveal itself and building steadily with emotional delivery and evocative storytelling.”
Lovely review from LT1KF.
“Americana guitar soundscape and sublime, atmospheric vocals…”
“…the pairing of tracks holds a high emotional quotient and we are fully in awe. We appreciate the sync friendly nature of the releases, and can imagine both songs in movies and TV shows.”
Great review from KIMU.
New Pine Overcoat / Angel
The antidote to Christmas singles you didn’t know you needed.
Before the AI reconstructions, before the rnb and neo-soul transformation of The Promised Land, before the Hovercraft resurrection project — these were the original 1990s demos that survived only because they were kept in cardboard boxes for thirty years.
“New Pine Overcoat” is close to Charlie Pepper’s raw acoustic folk original of the song that later became The Promised Land. It travels from youthful defiance to something darker in under three minutes. Unpolished, intimate, and far closer to the bone than the later reconstruction.
“Angel” begins with breathless acoustic longing and ends in bitter, coming-of-age defiance — Christmas angels with broken wings, impossible love turning into clarity. The ending lands exactly the way Charlie wrote it: unexpectedly sharp.
These tracks come from the original Hovercraft tapes recorded in Grimsby, 1995–96. Digitised, repaired, and released as part of the ongoing search for our missing songwriter and friend, Piers “Charlie Pepper” Wildman, last known to be in the Bournemouth area.
Every release is both memorial and message.
Sending a note, hoping someone reads it.