51 f
out to be the alter ego of a bloke called Timo- thy Renner who I’d been corresponding with on Facebook about old Derroll Adams record- ings. OK, give it a whirl then…
Stone Breath would seem to be the very genre-defining epitome of doombanjo psych folk. Renner’s rich voice pits creatively monotonous melodies against sparse, often drone-like accompaniments from deep-tuned banjos, guimbri, mandocello, melodica and the like, aided and abetted by his chums Pry- dwyn – a solo artist in his own right – and Sarada. A bit of digging with the aid of that nice Mr Google unearths the fact that they’ve been going since 1995, have made loads of previous underground records, and that Tim- othy also doubles as an artist and inventor of home-made instruments like sitar-guitars, guimbri-banjos and glasstambouras.
In truth, there’s a bit of minimalist ISB in
there (except Timothy’s voice goes down- wards where Robin and Mike’s strained up), but also traces of dark trad mountain music – Dock Boggs, Roscoe Holcomb. It took several listens before I put my finger on the other thing it reminds me of, the moodier aspects of the very wonderful Crooked Jades, who also use the odd ‘world’ influence and instru- ment in their spooky new old-time.
Well, it’s one of this month’s new favourite records – attractively out-there booklet paintings and all – though I must admit I didn’t warm to the ‘bonus’ CD in the box by label mates The Forest Beggars with whom Stone Breath have collaborated (too much out-of-tune meandering and unhealthy religious undertones), or Pridwyn’s own CD Solitude Owes Me A Smile (H/E044) which seems rather wavery and tentative in its cov- ers of Dr Strangely Strange, The Famous Jug Band and Lal Waterson, compared with the original and mesmerising beast that is The Shepherdess And The Bone-White Bird.
www.darkhollerarts.com Ian Anderson
BELLOWHEAD Hedonism Navigator NAVIGATOR42
As mighty as their first two albums – Burlesque and Mat- achin – may be, Bel- lowhead have pon-
dered long and hard on what they perceived as a failure to transfer the full potent dynam- ic that makes their stage shows so uproari- ously uplifting into a recorded format. They decided to consult one of Britain’s best and most experienced producers, John Leckie – whose track record includes seminal works like the Stone Roses’ debut, Radiohead’s The Bends and Muse’s Origin Of Symmetry –and his solution was to book them into London’s Abbey Rd, the only studio he felt could do them justice.
Bellowhead
The wisdom of this choice is evident as soon as Jon Boden’s voice soars from the speakers and the joyous, breast-beating opening track New York Girls lays a deter- mined marker for a new benchmark of the band’s unbridled musical ambition. It’s a big album in every respect, tackling some of the folk revival’s most populist songs, including A-Begging I Will Go, The Hand Weaver And The Factory Maid and Yarmouth Town, but tangents abound and even aside from the explosive barrages of brass and exhilarating sweeps of strings that provide so much of their colourful identity, they are still full of surprises, ideas bursting from all corners of this album like impudent firecrackers.
There’s a wonderfully mad thrash punk version of the shanty Little Sally Rackets, Boden sounding like a demented Jimmy Pursey, while A-Begging I Will Go sounds like it’s been dragged through a Shaft soundtrack backwards and The Hand Weaver And The Factory Maid swoops between rugged ska and a big theatrical production. There are moments that make you tingle with pleasure: the funky brass riffs and Boden’s falsetto out- break on Cold Blows The Wind; the inspired marching band arrangement – bagpipes and all – of Broomfield Hill; Rachael McShane’s delicious harmonies on the eerie Captain Wed- derburn; percussionist Pete Flood’s brilliantly ingenious concoctions around the instrumen- tal extravaganza Cross-Eyed And Chinless.
They include one non-traditional song and in their natural spirit of fearless adven- ture, Jacques Brel would seem an ideal conduit for Bellowhead at full tilt. They’ve gone with the sleazy masterpiece Amsterdam, building slowly on Brel’s tawdry imagery before light- ing the bonfires but, preceded as it is by many other virulently colourful interpretations through the years from The Johnstons to Scott Walker, this version falls somewhat flat.
That apart, the album flies – often in sev- eral directions at once – and Leckie duly deliv- ers their crazy wall of sound in a focused and clear-minded fashion without demeaning either its unfailing virtuosity or its innate intelligence and wit. They’ve all played a blin- der on this one.
www.navigator-store.com
www.bellowhead.co.uk Colin Irwin
VARIOUS ARTISTS Donna Lombarda Barcode BR10018AD
Over the last eight years, Massimo Gatti and Luigi Maramotti have run monthly musical and other events called Phos Hilarion (Greek for Light Of Joy) in aid of a local hospice in the south of Reg- gio Emilia in Italy; among the performers were the American guitarists featured here, and this project marries each of their very different
Photo: David Angel
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