f60 JIM MORAY


Sweet England: 10th Anniversary Edition NAG Records NIBLO 15


Strange now to recall the intense gush of hyperbole that greeted the release of this album a decade ago which, in retrospect, probably did Jim Moray no favours in the long term. In part due to the home-made cir- cumstances in which it was made it did break some of the moulds constraining folk music at the time and certainly merited its BBC Radio 2 Folk Album Of The Year Award; yet it was scarcely the revolutionary precursor of a folk techno/electronica explosion that some predicted, and Moray has gone on to record far superior works since, notably Low Culture in 2008 and Skulk in 2012.


That said, it did blow away a few cob- webs and awaken certain media to the fact that British folk song wasn’t entirely mori- bund or in the hands of bearded octogenari- ans and it is lovely to hear it again, especially squinting at the new limited edition 3D sleeve that now adorns my pristine version of the newly enhanced version. Today it doesn’t sound remotely revolutionary or even particularly daring, just rather good and somehow cosily familiar with occasional weird bits – the freakily dreamy arrange- ment and falsetto vocals on Seeds Of Love and Two Sisters do still raise an eyebrow and the vocal harmonics suddenly awash on The Week Before Easter somehow sound disem- bodied from the rest of the track. Interest- ing, though, to hear again the one self-com- posed track, the forbidding Longing For Lucy, which doesn’t sound remotely out of place and makes you wonder why he’s bare- ly pursued this path since.


There are three versions of Early One


Morning on the limited version – the plain- tive original, an all-guns blazing new produc- tion by Simon Emmerson and a powerhouse live version recorded in Birmingham. It doesn’t improve the song but it makes for an interesting musical voyage. Further live ver- sions of Lord Bateman, Sweet England, Pover- ty Knock and a satisfyingly ghostly Two Sisters add to the fun.


Happy anniversary Sweet England…


don’t be a stranger now. www.jimmoray.co.uk


Colin Irwin VARIOUS ARTISTS


The Mark Radcliffe Folk Sessions 2013 Delphonic Music DELPH040


One of the most welcome recent develop- ments resulting from Mark Radcliffe’s stew- ardship of the BBC’s venerable weekly Radio 2 folk show has been the live sessions record- ed for the show, subsequently released (in download format) shortly after broadcast. For those of us of a certain vintage it feels like a reassuring return to the good old days of the much-loved Peel Sessions EPs (I still have the June Tabor 12") whilst simultane- ously demonstrating and utilising all the advantages of MP3’s immediacy.


That ability to balance the old and the


new, and to gently steer the proponents of both toward an appreciation of the other, is a strong feature of Radcliffe’s presenting style, and also very much in evidence in the astute sequencing of this compilation.


Fairport Convention’s Meet On The


Ledge (a none-more-safe Radio 2 choice) opens proceedings, followed by John Smith’s deceptively jaunty Salty And Sweet – the for- mer’s eternal hymn of reconciliation casting the lines of the latter (“I told my mother, my violent brother, that all they give to me is reason to leave”) into chilling contrast and causing this listener to comment: “I say, this


Smith chap’s lyrics are worthy of Richard Thompson. Oh. I see what they just did, there...” Elsewhere, enduringly and hugely popular string duo Show Of Hands cosy-up with rapidly-becoming-hugely-popular string duo Greg Russell & Ciaran Algar and (speak- ing of string bands) there’s one instance of explicit cross-generational psych-folk sym- biosis, as Trembling Bells and Mike Heron combine for a gleeful romp through Log Cabin Home In The Sky.


There’s a decent balance between the kick-ass and the contemplative, with Sarah Savoy & The Francadians, SteveTilston Trio, John Kirkpatrick, Blair Dunlop, Faustus and Gordie MacKeeman & His Rhythm Boys sup- plying the wallop, and Eliza Carthy, Heidi Tal- bot, Lisa Knapp and Anaïs Mitchell & Jeffer- son Hamer bringing the wistful.


If you like your folk music live and direct,


there’s plenty to cherish here but be warned that Jackie Oates’s Waiting For The Lark, Spooky Men’s Chorale’s The Sweetest Kick and Olivia Chaney’s sparse, harmonium- accompanied Dark Eyed Sailor (very possibly the best recorded version I’ve ever heard) possess the ability to lead grown men into making perjurious, moist-eyed claims of chopping onions, whilst listening.


www.delphonicmusic.com Stephen Hunt


FABA LOBA Senegalesa Art Hurts AHR013


Superb album, bursting with joy and experi- ment. All put together more as a recording project than an actual band, with two griot- background Senegalese providing lead vocals and kora, a Cuban on vocals, and two LA Americans on “beats, keyboard and elec- tronica” and guitars, organs, percussion and backing vocals. So there’s the canvas and paints. What sings out as the CD proceeds is the affinity that comes from musicians who mutually inspire. It doesn’t really matter so much what makes what or from where as what heart and art goes into what. So you get a deep growly electronic slab of riff with bubbles of kora bursting overhead that leads into a few bars of soukous guitar and a voice that sounds like Baaba Maal’s brother. That good. And all the potential clutter of a production like this doesn’t get a chance to root – the housekeeping and editing is sharp and clear. Every element gets space to be heard. Delicious music.


arthurtsrecords.wordpress.com/faba-loba Rick Sanders John Smith recording in Radio 2’s new aqua-studio


VARIOUS ARTISTS Brasslands Evergreene Music 007


This is the soundtrack to those days every year when the small Serbian village of Guca is possessed by over half a million people (and possibly almost as many trumpets) during its wholly raucous brass festival. It’s also the soundtrack to the recent movie that did such a fine job of documenting the whole visceral and extremely loud celebration of the Ser- bian brass traditions, as fuelled by countless brandies, hundreds of stages and thousands of musicians seeking competition and careers.


But this is all set in a landscape above


which NATO bombs screamed rather recently and through which ethnic tension marched at its most blinkered and bloody. Rival but mutually respectful groups and gangs, often representing different geographical Balkan traditions and different ethnic groups, seek ultimate prizes, duelling at restaurant tables, playing remaining impossibly dextrous through the moonshine and adrenaline. At times the whole genre, certainly the festival, seems to be about rebirth and literal vitality for a troubled country, and a confusing but ultimately healthy clash of Serbian, Romani and Turkish traditions, all communicated through pounding diversity, caught well here in an album that features some of the genre’s greatest performers from Serbia and other less familiar names from North America.


Dejan Petrovic is a star, taking on the vital cinematic role of defending Trumpet Champion. His Sheherezada seems to origi- nate from deep inside the heart of all this music, a deep groove that could go on all night. The Demiran Creimovic Orchestra’s Demiranov Cocek, meanwhile, is a vital show- case of the oft-crowned Best Orchestra, a pummelling rampage of invention and brittle soul from a band who are much in demand for the everyday rituals and celebrations of their Balkan community.


Movies, of course, demand a cast to fol- low on a journey. So here is New York band, Zlatne Uste, up for the festival’s intriguing new melée for international acts. Zlatne Uste are not of Serbian extraction but they play a more than passable and loud repertoire of authentic tunes, with added dashes of klezmer, jazz and funk. They happily pay their dues and earn their place on an admirably breakneck compilation.


www.brasslands.com www.evergreenemusic.com


John Pheby


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