63 f


ing is heard to full effect on these superbly re-mastered tracks. The material may be familiar to many (especially any surviving British skifflers) but the high quality of this release qualifies it for purchase.


So too, the Mississippi John Hurt album. During 1928 Hurt travelled to once to Mem- phis and twice to New York from his home in Avalon, Mississippi to make thirteen sides for the Okeh company. His soft vocal delivery over his intricate guitar picking is still widely imitated today and some of these songs have become staples in many a repertoire. Again the re-mastering allows Hurt’s subtle perfor- mance to be clearly heard. If the Okeh session wasn’t enough (for this single CD), six bonus early ’60s tracks have been added for extra value. Oh… and all three of this releases come with informative, well illustrated booklets.


souljamrecords.com Dave Peabody THREE CANE WHALE


Live At The Old Barn, Keelson Roundhill Keelson Records KR001CD


This second release in a year relocates the Bristol trio of Paul Bradley, Pete Judge and Alex Vann from the environs of Real World Studios (which they occupied for the record- ing of Palimpsest) to The Old Barn, Kelston Roundhill – a notable landmark situated between Bath and Bristol.


As such, it’s a return to the locational recording techniques they used to create their eponymous debut album and 2013’s Holts & Hovers. What makes this one differ- ent is the presence of an audience. Audibly imperceptible (even in the silences of Song Of Rescue) they are nonetheless palpably joined in communion with the performers as they hymn the English landscape, using a plethora of acoustic instruments in their sonic liturgies.


The spoken contribution of Jon Hemp – who reads his poems No Palace, No Gold, A Legionnaire’s Lament and 3am July 5th 1643 over Ruby & Elsie, Noctule and Penda’s Fen, is engrossing and entirely apt.


“Made possible by Bath Spa University College of Liberal Arts”, Live At The Old Barn, Keelson Roundhill is the perfect introduction to the unique and quietly impassioned music of Three Cane Whale.


threecanewhale.com Steve Hunt


LE TOUT PUISSANT ORCHESTRE POLY- RYTHMO Madjafalao Because Music BEC 5156646


Here is a band who have been playing for almost half a century, have recorded hun- dreds of songs, and yet are still able to pro- duce an album full of fresh material. Individu- al members have come and gone (notably Melomé Clémént, founder of the group, in 2012), but the music lives on.


They hail originally from Cotonou,


Benin, a West African country lying next to Togo, both snuggled in between Ghana and Nigeria. Given this situation in time and space, their music has the influence of afrobeat, highlife and Benin’s own melodic and rhythmic styles, which are a part of the Voodoo tradition.


Most of the songs have a steady funk groove to them, coloured by horns, ’70s organ, bass and electric guitar. The treacly, swaying sounds of Migbe and the conga-led rumba of Wangnigni are relaxing, whilst Africa Lonlon has the driving heart of afrobeat, and Oesse the upbeat sunshine sounds.


However, there are times the band tries to press the accelerator down too hard, causing the whole structure to kind of rattle. An exam- ple of this is the hyped-up drumbeat, vocal growling and distorted guitars in the intro to Finlin Ho, and the excessive overall tempo of the track. When the distorted guitars return to feature in the introduction to Baba Djide, it sounds like the theme to a 1980s cop drama. It’s funny how some modernisations make cer- tain things sound more dated.


The most interesting track of them all is


quite possibly Heritage. It starts off with a spa- cious and familiar afrobeat groove backed up by horns. However, when the vocal melody comes in, the track shifts gear entirely into a quite surprising, agile, I’m-walking-down-a- sunny-street melody. Around the three-minute mark, there’s another breakdown, and a slow, proud, triumphant horn melody sweeps in and carries the rhythm with it. Then, after that, a different vocal melody takes over. Its one of those tracks where you’d really like to under- stand the lyrics and the story.


As a final note, it may seem strange to


say, but the melodies and language on Her- itage and several other tracks sound a little different than what you may expect to hear from West Africa – they could almost come from a Polynesian island, or the plains of cen- tral Asia… Something else to listen for and keep up the intrigue!


www.polyrythmo.com Joshua Coppersmith Heaven


HEG & THE WOLF CHORUS Raising The Fires Bessie Records BR001CD


This, at first glance, looks suspiciously like: The King Of Elfland’s Daughter – the 1977 concept album by Steeleye Span’s Bob John- son and Peter Knight, which set Lord Unsay’s 1924 fantasy novel to music with every con- ceivable bell and whistle and a cast including Christopher Lee, Mary Hopkin and PP Arnold. Released around the same time as Joey Ramone was adenoidally scolding: “No more of your fairy stories, ’cause I got my other worries!” it was subsequently summarised in era-bible Galactic Ramble as: “absolutely hilarious, but perversely rather good too…”


Based on a traditional witch tale from the Isle of Skye, Raising The Fires turns out to be something far more nuanced and intrigu- ing. From the grand piano flourish that intro- duces the opening track Hide, The Storm Is Coming! it’s an overtly and unapologetically theatrical work in which fairy tales, folk bal-


Orchestre Poly-Rythmo


lads, ancient mythology and natural history weave together in layers of meaning and metaphor. Familiar archetypal characters fea- ture, such as the Maiden who spins straw into gold and the Giant who smells the blood of an Englishman, while the central witch figure brings about the destruction of the world in revenge for her at-the-stake burning, before finally becoming a bird and attaining a kind of redemption in flight.


There’s no narration or prog instrumental showboating, so each of the ten songs is given the space to make its own statement in arrangements which maximise the impact of the Wolf Chorus’s multiple vocalists and per- cussionists. While it’s safe to assume that Heg Brignall has more than a passing familiarity with the recorded works of Kate Bush, the col- lective sound probably owes at least as much to contemporary influences like Arcade Fire, while the unaccompanied Fairy Hill – with its ‘diddle dum, diddle dee’ refrains, will resonate immediately with admirers of Lady Maisery.


Already given a “special theatrical album launch” in Bristol, Raising The Fires has the potential to mutate and exist in forms as-yet un-envisaged. In the meantime, this highly accomplished and idiosyncratic album pro- vides a cogent argument that “spells told in truth can always be told.” Hear a track on fRoots 62.


hegandthewolfchorus.com Steve Hunt


ROY BAILEY Live At Towersey Fuse Records CFCD410


Roy Bailey’s last album apparently. Yeah right, we’ve heard that before!


But if it is, then it’s not a bad one to go out on… singing at Towersey Festival (2015), where he’s been a regular fixture since it began, in front of a clearly adoring audience flanked by Martin Simpson, Andy Cutting, Marc Block and Ian Brown delivering the familiar likes of What You Do With What You’ve Got, With God On Our Side, They All Sang Bread & Roses and Rolling Home… he/we couldn’t really ask for much more.


Between his wry asides, funny little sto- ries and insights into the songs, he’s no less affected by the mutual love-fest in the air than the audience, who burst into chorus at every conceivable opportunity and applaud him loudly when he tells them he loves them. We even get to hear the recording debut (??) of his granddaughter Molly singing the utter- ly charming Molly’s Garden, along with her mother Kit Bailey.


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