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discovered country music, but with the twist now of knowing exactly what they’re doing. It kind of feels like, well, art, and none the worse for it, because they’ve become expert at being Mekons. Wayward yet curiously focused, pretty much all done with the group gathered round a single microphone, this is taking it all back to the basics. And it works. Even something like the disconcerting opener, Flowers Of Evil, Part 2, with curious burbles of noise and voices, and sounding very much like a studio construct, sets the stage well. They’ve never stopped being punk, really; the only thing that’s altered is the definition of what punk might be. They’re an unstoppable engine, still putting out some of the most idiosyncratic music on the planet. There’s a limited edition with a book of essays – not the first time they’ve done that – if you’ve a mind. But not cheap.
The year before, a slimmed-down version of the Mekons toured the UK with singer- songwriter (and very good guitarist) Robbie Fulks (fR397). Like two of the Mekons, he lives in Chicago and shares a label with them. Quite a natural pairing, but it wasn’t the Mekons as backing band; they became a new, if slightly different whole. After several excel- lent gigs they headed up to the Scots island of Jura to record together. Purely coincidence that the place happened to contain a dis- tillery, obviously. One old Mekons piece (Beaten And Broken), one traditional (Go From My Window) and nine more that they’d knocked up together. Fulks has lead vocals on two of the songs, but otherwise he’s simply part of the band, no more or less than any- one else. The songs are more rounded than many Mekons releases, more adhering to form, as if someone’s tugged on the lead and said heel. But there’s still that delicious feel- ing that things could tumble into anarchy any second. Maybe it’s not among their very best (whereas Existentialism definitely is), but the songs are still better than 90 percent of what’s out there. Now on CD after a vinyl and download-only pre-release earlier this year. Long may they all ride the waves.
www.mekons.de/mekonhom.htm Chris Nickson
THE FURROW COLLECTIVE Wild Hog Hudson Records HUD001CD
The Furrow Collective’s 2014 debut was (and remains) a very fine record indeed. But even its title – At Our Next Meeting, suggested a promise of better things to come and Wild Hog doesn’t disappoint. A couple of years’ worth of gigs,
rehearsals and recordings have moulded this group of singularly talented individuals (Lucy Farrell, Rachel Newton, Emily Portman and Alasdair Roberts) into a more cohesive unit – something distinctively ‘itself’, dis- pelling any lingering perception of the Fur- row Collective as just(!) being The Emily Portman Trio hanging-out and playing trad songs with Alasdair Roberts.
Here, the core quartet is bolstered by the addition of guest bassist Stevie Jones (Sound Of Yell) and drummer Alex Neilson (Trembling Bells) who both, in another guise, comprise two-thirds of Roberts’ own trio. It’s Neilson’s urgent drumming that propels the opening Wild Hog In The Woods, whilst his jazz- informed cymbal splashes on Prince Heathen (sung to harrowing perfection by Newton) evoke Terry Cox’s peerless Pentangle work.
Lucy Farrell sings the oft-covered Polly
Vaughn, over a startling arrangement of piano drones and ‘Devil’s intervals’ while her Willie’s Fatal Visit is as elegant and engross-
ing a piece of British folk-rock as has been heard in these parts for many’s the long year. Emily Portman also tackles a well-known bal- lad in Barbara Allen – to a wonkily Port- manesque melody gleaned from Irish singer Elizabeth Cronin. Rachel Newton’s Choir M’athair Mise Dhan Taigh Charraideach (My Father Sent Me To The House Of Sorrow) pulses with an insistency that compels the lis- tener to turn up the volume and throw the windows open.
Every track reveals dazzling examples of instrumental and vocal interplay, including Roberts’ atmospheric electric guitar support- ing Farrell’s voice on Dear Companion and Newton’s harp on the Roberts-sung Queen Eleanor’s Confession. When their voices all combine – as they do over Portman’s sparse banjo and Roberts’s reverb-drenched guitar on the waltz-time Many’s The Night’s Rest, the effect is eye-moisteningly lovely.
The plastic-free CD package features striking cover artwork by Suzie Saffron and booklet notes which credit song sources, Roud numbers and a list of the gizmos deployed in the recording process (which include a JLM Baby Animal API, a Tektronix LA2A and an “odd little Casio keyboard”).
Created by a group of singers and musi- cians at the peak of their powers and flaw- lessly produced by Andy Bell, what we have here is another contender for all those soon- to-come Folk Album of the Year lists.
thefurrowcollective.co.uk Steve Hunt ALSARAH & THE
NUBATONES ManaraWonderwheel Recordings
Nubia meets New York in this intoxicating blend of East African traditionalism and globe trotting modernity, the second album from Sudanese expat Alsarah and her Brook- lyn-based backing band.
Their sound is spare but colourful, with percussion
(and sometimes handclaps) beating out the distinctive Nubian rhythms, around which
Alsarah & The Nubatones
oud, trumpet and the odd understated wash of synth or samples are added. Alsarah’s voice is definitely the ace up their sleeve: pure, pas- sionate, letting rip or holding back in all the right places. New recruit additional vocalist Nahid is there for the call and response.
So what’s she going on about then? This is exile music, travellers’ music (Alsarah and the band have been consistently touring across the globe for the last couple of years). Lyrically concerned with notions of home, as a place and a concept. What it means to leave it and how you keep the spirit of it alive once you have. I know all this from having just read the press release, although I picked up a sense of longing from the vocals and a combi- nation of cultural roots tempered with the sounds of her adopted homeland in the arrangements. Not that you need to know about any of that to enjoy what’s on offer here. Hear a track on fRoots 61.
www.alsarah.com Jamie Renton
KATE RUSBY Life In A Paper Boat Pure PRCD41
This, apparently, is Kate Rusby’s fourteenth studio album in 24 years of doing this sort of thing. Blimey.
In that time, of course, she has long out- reached the normal parameters of folk song popularity, methodology and, probably, criti- cal appraisal, too. She’s instantly recognisable and hugely popular… two facets guaranteed to attract large doses of cynicism, but claims that everything she touches sounds exactly the same are wide of the mark.
The underrated Damien O’Kane has been very good for her, a musician and pro- ducer with a penchant for boldness, musical aggression and random effects, who palpably broadened her horizons at a time she was sounding stale. And while she’s always sur- rounded herself with brilliant musicians, the current band of O’Kane , Duncan Lyall on double bass and Moog, Nick Cooke on accordeon, Steven Byrnes on bouzouki, Steven Iveson on electric guitar and Josh Clark on percussion offers greater range and richness than we might expect. This is no bet- ter illustrated than on her cover of Archie
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