RADAR: The Staves

It would be easy to say that England's sibling modern folk trio The Staves are simply Laura Marling times three. From the similar vocal shadings to the delicate acoustic melodies to word that both Ethan Johns -- who produced Marling's two most recent albums -- and his legendary father Glyn (Who, Beatles, Clash, latest Ryan Adams) will both be working on the The Staves' debut 2012 long-player, it would appear that the path has already been laid out before them. But Emily, Jessica and Camilla, the early 20-something sisters from northwest London, have their own nuanced distinctions within the burgeoning U.K. neo/folk movement championed by Marling and others. New EP title track "Mexico" is a masterful bit of sublime harmony that spans the chilly confines of England and balmier surroundings of 70's L.A. folk/pop. Lovely. New video for "Mexico" after the jump.

The Staves - "Mexico" (from the Mexico EP)

The Staves - "Facing West" (from the Facing West EP)

The Staves, three sisters from Watford in their early 20s, are not quite so brash, or rather, they use dissimilar methods to express a similar disquiet. Their folk melodies and vocals are winsome and sometimes prim, but they mask feelings that are no less real and raw than Banks's. You know, one day, people will look back and marvel at how we managed to draw parallels between a hyper-Minaj and these triplicate Marlings, mere wisps of women caught in a gust of wind, to quote one of their songs.

Our harmonising heroines, who pretty much sound like you'd expect three girls named Emily, Jessica and Camilla to sound, attended the same comprehensive in Rickmansworth as Kyla La Grange, so if anyone out there can name a third stellar ex-alumnus we can confidently declare it the Herts version of the BRIT School. Other headlines? They provided backing vocals for recent albums by Tom Jones and Fionn Regan, they were the support act for Mumford and Sons on their US tour, and legendary producers Glyn and Ethan Johns (whose combined credits include the Rolling Stones, the Eagles, Joan Armatrading, Ryan Adams, Ray LaMontagne, Kings of Leon and La Marling, to name just a few) liked them so much that they both independently tracked them down and decided to share production duties on their 2012 debut album, the first time the father and son have done that.

We imagine the songs on that album will be merging and mingling UK folk and US singer-songwriter styles – not quite a jam session between Joni Mitchell and Sandy Denny but somehow wafting between the two continents and sensibilities. You know the way that Marling can evoke a specific kind of folkish Englishness one minute and the next make you feel as though you're in early-70s Laurel Canyon? The Staves can do that, too. They are, we are told, "capable of plunging an audience into awed silence".