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The Rheingans Sisters


THE RHEINGANS SISTERS Bright Field RootBeat RBRCD39


A long, slow bow stroke… a distant plucked string… the violin slowly beginning to get more intense, building and building and building… I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m instantly hooked. As album openings go, Anna Rheingans’ glori-


ously mystical and slightly sinister Glattugla is magical. Bold, forthright and uncompro- mising in a similar manner to the begin- nings of Lankum’s latest album.


Follow it with a Rowan Rheingans song,


This Forest, a darkly damning, but brilliantly conceived vision of the world and the way we live in it, and you know you are in the pres- ence of an exceptional record.


This is the third duo album by the Rhein- gans Sisters and while the first two both car- ried memorable moments, this is by some dis- tance their finest yet. The range and variety of the music they produce is a telling factor in the way it holds the interest – a lovely French- language song Appel, followed by a tradi- tional French dance tune Lo Segoner, so sedate you want to cuddle it, until Anna’s


flutey thing kicks in and it jumps out of your arms and leaps around the room in delight. Just one example of their natural instincts for arrangements that keep the music fresh and the juices flowing.


In this respect, banjos play a formidable role in the success of Green Unstopping (heard on this issue’s fRoots 68 compila- tion), but it’s the striking strength of their fiddle playing that really carries the album. The evocative introductory theme to title track Bright Field is magnificent – indeed if it carried on through the whole album there wouldn’t be any complaints from this corner – until the music fades to a drone to allow the gentle voice of Dafydd Davies- Hughes to recount a spiritual RS Thomas poem urging us to stop and examine the beautiful vignettes enveloped within our mad, rushing world.


Indeed, from the sleeve design to the melancholy imagery of another startlingly well-constructed Rowan Rheingans’ song Edge Of The Field, it’s an album driven by thoughts of nature and the countryside, albeit often used as a metaphor for other things. The sort of album, in fact, where you discover fresh nuances with each re-visit. rheingansisters.co.uk


Colin Irwin


MA POLAINE’S GREAT DECLINE The Outsider OMH Records MPGD05


This newish London duo comprises guitarist Clinton Hough and singer Beth Pack- er, who also contributes some tasty harmonica to the album. The sound is pared- down, polished blues, set at a languid tempo throughout.


There’s a lot to enjoy


here, but also a couple of hurdles to over- come first. Packer’s breathy vocals initially struck me as being rather mannered, which didn’t fade until my fourth or fifth listen, and that languid pace I initially became a little wearisome. But that said, the album’s a defi- nite grower. That’s thanks partly to its gor- geous instrumental work, led by Hough’s snaky, atmospheric guitar licks. Packer’s smoky harmonica is another of the disc’s musical highlights, particularly on Old Fash- ioned Goodbye, its closing track.


The band’s earlier work has attracted comparisons to Tom Waits’ Swordfishtrom- bones era, but that influence is pretty hard to detect here. There’s the odd bit of clattery


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