Album Review: Dave Vamfer – Find the Sound

From Folkestone, Kent comes singer-songwriter Dave Vamfer. From what I can gather, Vamfer recorded a solo album Find the Sound a few years back but has retooled the album, re-recording some tracks, dropping others and adding some new ones. It’s his assertion that the 2025 version of Find the Sound is a marked improvement over the original. Not having heard the old one, I’m left to comment upon the new version. And I’m finding it appealing.

There’s an unmistakably canned feel to the drums on “Keep On Coming,” but Vamfer calls this new version an “EDM” mix, so that percussion texture makes sense. That aside, the song is a gently stomping rocker with a plucky, British Isles folk feel about it.

“Because We’re Ending” dials back the electronics – though they still poke through here and there – and emphasizes the more pastoral and acoustic musical textures. Vamfer’s yearning vocal conveys the heartbreak of the song’s lyric. Balancing the emotional palette, “So Happy” is a more upbeat tune with a lyric to match. Vamfer’s modest and homespun vocal timbre underscores the authenticity of the whole project.

There’s a subtly Parisian jazz feel to “If There’s a Purpose?” The tune is a musical outlier on this set, but it’s a welcome one. “Dark Dawn Blues” provides the most electric moment on the set, with a swinging, loping feel. The instrumental title track is musically lovely, with some unexpected elements (like saxophone) that, taken together, add up to the album’s best cut.