65 f


vice; wasn’t he too traddy, too folk club? Nope. After all, those with better memories will recall he was part of the original amor- phous collective which coalesced as the Home Service back in the day and if you’re telling tales about loss of livelihood/community you need a powerful voice to put the point across: John K’s yer man. Dirt, Dust, Lorries & Noise resurrects a Kirkpatrick theatre piece which deals with pollution on many levels if there- are open cast workings nearby; fracking too?


What strikes you straightaway about


New Ground is that this is an ensemble work. While Graeme Taylor, Andy Findon and John Kirpkatrick might take the lead, composing, arranging, recording and producing, perhaps more than ever Home Service is a democracy. Read the booklet and most of the eight mem- bers chip in with suggestions, oddball choices and advice. Tams may have seemed like a benign dictator at times but he knew how to surround himself with musicians of experi- ence, vision and individuality which shows here. Arthur McBride is a trad lift, one in the eye for the military, wonderfully counter- pointed by Taylor’s Chaconne which makes the rafters ring with trumpets, sax and arch- ing lead guitar, all underscored by Rory McFarlane’s tight bass and Michael Gregory’s military beats.


In truth it’s great to hear that Anglocen- tric roar and have tunes lifting off or framing songs. The Skies Turned Grey deals with the foot and mouth outbreak of 2001 and the devastation it caused farmers with entire herds summarily torched heartbreakingly before their eyes. It flirts with an age-old country dance melody running contrary to the grim lyric. You can almost smell the smoke!


The title slice probably sums up their action and ethos best, “now the old ground has fallen away, a new ground instead is holding sway”. Old ground or new ground, somebody’s still got to tend it and Home Ser- vice make excellent keepers and watchmen. Expect live gigs early in 2017 and watch those festival bills next summer.


www.HomeServiceBand.co.uk Simon Jones KEREKES BAND


Back To Følk (Music From Følkland) Kerekes Band KB07


The routes described in Trans-Nomád-Express sound like primeval and hard-hewn track- ways rather than the sophisticated and effi- cient propulsion of Kraftwerk’s cold but romantic pan-European vision. And there’s a similar tough-but-loose wryness through the album, a mirthless humour, an opaque and contradictory homage to much well known music. There are plenty of hard rock shapes and tropes, but played on unfamiliar instru- ments and with traditional sensibilities.


The conceit, which is lovingly illustrated and expanded upon for the album art, is that this is the national music of Følkland, a tiny autonomous Magyar archipelago lost in the mists of time, a place rich in folklore and folk music, here rediscovered about a thousand years too late. Apparently, Følkland was chanced upon after many adventures with sea monsters and the like, and there’s some nice world-building about horse-nomads and sparrow-deities. But, of course, a great deal of humour is lost in the translation.


There are tracks about yearning for free- dom, about national days, about peace and free trade (these particular islands are not as inward looking as certain others, it seems), all performed in the ‘flute-lute-viola-Puszta- beat’ style that first emerged from the sonic experiments of the islands’ shepherds. Recog- nisable pop and rock mixes into ancient melodies. A soundtrack to the mix of baroque grandeur and 20th Century concrete brutal-


Kerekes Band


ism that is the band’s hometown of Eger. This is the sound of the táncház, when the players came up for air and stayed up, clamping western radio stations to their ears and beau- tifully, wilfully, misinterpreting what they heard, with heavy rock flute, retro metal riffs, heavy drumming and screeching crescendos. It all sounds gloriously dated. Hendrix is played through Zsombor Fehér’s modified shepherd’s flute, Akos Csarnó’s flattened- bridge viola, and a koboz lute played with exhausting ferocity by Csaba Námor. All instruments are played with a dangerous lack of respect, a bludgeoning love of rock, and an appreciation of idiosyncratic and violent punk brevity, with flute on lead guitar.


Følkland ˝Osi Himnusza is even a remark- ably brave stab at an alternative national anthem, treading on very sacred toes, a piece that is a little too Whiter Shade Of Pale for comfort, but still part of a charming and exciting wider groove and whimsy.


www.kerekesband.hu John Pheby


JIM ELDON Songs And Fiddle Tunes Stick SDCD012


Should a fan be allowed to write a review and be expected to give objective opinions? Perhaps, if he admits this from the outset, so let’s state that Jim Eldon has been one of this reviewer’s main men amongst English per- formers for some years now.


The album is a reflection of Jim’s live per- formances. No nonsense, nothing fancy, just get on with the main business of delivering the songs and tunes in a straightforward way with no fuss. Most of the items are on the short side, around two minutes or less. In the main the tunes come from Jim’s long associa- tion with The Goathland Plough Stots and his fiddle playing has the authentic sound of a Romany when he ‘fakes the bosh’. The songs are not much longer. The only that delays you for any time is his take on Seven Drunken Nights – The Merry Cuckold – which has a very different ending from the well-known versions of that song. That is the thing about Jim’s songs, they tell the familiar stories of traditional songs but he always manages to seek out unusual and different ways with them. There are some delightful ones here, particularly the Queen Of Tavendor and Fair Ones Are Shining.


Jim’s albums usually contain a sprinkling of his quirky compositions and this is no exception. The construction and content of these songs mark him out as a man with a very individual world view. One thinks of past offerings, like Pools Win or I Am Agency which manage to stop the listener in their tracks; something that is arresting and differ- ent. This time it is It’s Still Around Somewhere.


A few more individuals that, like Jim, plough their own musical furrow would enrich the scene considerably.


www.veteran.co.uk Vic Smith TANGA


Madagascar: Le Trésor des Ancêtres Buda 4793668


Sometimes an album comes along that is utterly delightful in its every aspect… like this one, for example.


The album has something of the feel of a field recording in that it clearly sounds as though it has been recorded on location rather than in a sophisticated studio, but then you listen to the quality of the perform- ers. They present themselves in a way that shows polish and tight rehearsal; they sound like a concert party, perhaps the booklet notes will clear that up. There are lots of details in the superb 32-page booklet given in French and English. It takes some time to set- tle to read the notes because initially you are struck by the extraordinary high quality of the photos which are both entrancing and informative of their lifestyle. Recordings of local ‘actuality’ between each track also add to the whole with the sounds of farming and home life, wildlife and even storms.


Tanga and his troupe are Betsileos living in the central highlands of south-central Madagascar. They have their own culture, language and farming methods. His father and grandfather were famed musicians local- ly before him and he is now joined by his own children. Many of their instruments are homemade but his father and uncles intro- duced the accordeon into this music and we can hear harmonicas and melodicas being played for the songs and dance tunes with the distinctive six/four rhythm dominating. Similarly, Tanga’s own compositions are heard alongside traditional music with the overall feeling being that modern outside influences


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