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VARIOUS ARTISTS
Weirdlore: Notes From The Folk Underground Folk Police FPR008
In her sleevenotes to this compilation Jeanette Leech muses on genres: what they are and what they
mean to both performers and audience. Here at Hipster Central, we’re beyond such things and are happy to accept offerings at their face value, even to equating the subtitle of the CD as a détournement of Dostoyevsky’s Notes From Underground. That way lies mad- ness, so strap yourself in and enjoy the ride... and if you bought the Village Thing compila- tion, Ghosts From The Basement, you’ll be in the right frame of mind for it: the refusal to fall into clichés, the sometimes wilful oddity, the very British sensibilities are what unites the current crop of artists with the older group (who were just as unlikely to think of themselves as a genre or subgenre anyway).
But let’s get to it: the title suggests a link
to older, weirder, folk-based matters, and there’s a fair bit of that on offer – Telling The Bees’ opener, Worship Of Trees, aims to con- dense all 12 volumes of The Golden Bough into a few minutes of mandolin, concertina, and cello. The latter is one of the instruments that appears a lot here, as does this year’s ukulele, the harmonium – and while we’re at
Katie Rose: wicked Weirdlorist
it, there are a few Glockenspiel Alerts, merci- fully short. Pamela Wyn Shannon’s Moss Mantra is a tour de force, whispering the names of mosses over dark backing, equalled by Katie Rose, who mingles three witches’ songs and chants in different voices: Witches’ Reel – included on this issue’s fRoots 40 com- pilation – is a come-all-ye invitation to ancient wickedness. Brighton’s Foxpockets cinematically tell the story of Grendel, Alas- dair Roberts evokes the Norse trickster god Loki in Haruspex Of Paradox in a typically intense, masterful performance, and Clive Murrell, aka Wyrdstone, plays 12-string to frame Sussex goblins and showmen in Puclan- cyrcan. It’s all a long way from manufactured Wicker Mannery, and each take is individual and refreshing.
Ah yes, folk music... there are a few tra- ditional songs too: Rapunzel & Sedayne take on The Innocent Hare, best-known in the ver- sion of The Copper Family, with swirling ‘pipes’ and guitar; cheeky Northern sepa- ratists Harp And A Monkey rewrite Mole- catcher, blending the spirit of the older song with more modern sensibilities and losing nothing in the process; and Sproatly Smith manage to combine industrial noise and sweet harmonies in their glorious, stately Rosebud In June, that takes the Steel- eye Span version and goes elsewhere with it. It’s not traditional, but Robin Williamson’s Come With Me, in the hands of The Witches
Karine Polwart
With Kate Denny, has that unmistakable ISB/The Sun Also Rises hippy-naïf touch that you love or you hate. There’s no dearth of original material: Emily Portman, who just gets better and better, has a rippling, drag- ging undersea ballad, Spine Of A Wave, on a similar theme to The False Beards’ reworking of Mr Anderson’s Marie Celeste On Down (from the VT days). Nancy Wallace’s Walking Into Walls is a gem, mysterious and heartfelt over straightforward guitar, and with Black Hive The Straw Bear Band are the nearest we get to old-fashioned 1960s American folk- rock/psychedelia (always a fave at HCentral).
OK, so it’s not a genre, but each track has an adventurousness about it that demands attention; and as a collection of songs that take the widest definition of ‘folk’ – and how broad a church can that be? – and use its ele- ments to make something new and interest- ing, it’s a great introduction that deserves to be a bit of a classic of its kind.
Ian Kearey
KARINE POLWART Traces Hegri CD08P
Right back to her days with MacAlias, Battle- field Band and Malinky, Karine Polwart was always a special talent, even if all the atten- tion was focused on her sublime voice. That she has subsequently chosen to challenge and
Photo: Judith Burrows
Photo: Ian Anderson
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