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becoming so bland and safe there’s barely room for fun any more, let alone melodious if riotous drinking music, venues or a band that plays such. WKND (Flash New Breeks) sums up curtly “all the good folk are safe indoors with their chicken and white wine”.


On a wider level such policies mean ris- ing prices for everything, maybe the cost is too high as some resort to doorways and lives on the edge, all recalled on Them Fallen. With a mixture of whistles, mandolins, assort- ed guitars and a deep-down rhythm section, songs like Kathleen, Les Darcy, Eight Beers McGee, are stacked full of characters and a kinder spirit than a clutch of drinking and falling-over songs should contain. Dead To Me is a stack of rough remorse whilst Patron Saint O’Thieves is perhaps the most familiar thing for the punk roots devotee to hang on. The invitation – er no… make that the chal- lenge – here is to ignore the mean stares, the black clothing and studded leather wrist bands and realise that The Rumjacks maybe be straight down to business but they create thinking music, even if it does come on as tough and rough. Deep down the songs are on the side of the angels, angels with tattoos but still angels.


www.therumjacks.com Simon Jones


THE STRAW BEAR BAND Eccentric Heart Rif Mountain RM-016


ROBERT SUNDAY Halcyon Bloom Rif Mountain RM-023


JASON STEEL Crucible Songs Rif Mountain RM-024


Here, after a long hiatus, are three new limited-edition CD mini-albums from the ever- intriguing Rif Mountain label.


The Straw Bear Band release actually started life a decade ago but was abandoned by singer-songwriter Dom Cooper and gui- tarist Lewis Hill in 2011, following the tragic and untimely death of percussionist/produc- er Adam Lambert. Here, the original ‘garage- folk’ power trio are augmented by well- deployed guest musicians including Jason Steel (banjo) and Nancy Wallace (vocals).


Each of the seven songs documents and celebrates the life of a notable British eccen- tric, including physician Erasmus Darwin and scientist Sir Francis Galton. The eponymous librarian of the joyous Treeman, Fisherman, reminds me somewhat of the chap who cur- rently blogs photos of himself wearing hand- knitted jumpers that depict the landmarks he visits. Darker territory is explored in Trial By Bread & Butter, on which an elemental Coop- er calls the spirits over the hypnotic thump of Lambert’s drums and Hill’s incantatory blues riffs. An enlightening history lesson that (thanks to Cooper’s gift for memorable pop hooks) also evokes more contemporary mav- ericks like Ray Davies and Jarvis Cocker.


Robert Sunday is an enigmatic London-


based singer-songwriter, with an alluring croon and a penchant for atmospheric vignettes that reference such topics as American Were- wolf In London.


His arrangements – picked and strummed acoustic guitars, sparse piano, and reverb- drenched Telecaster are at times reminiscent of the Handsome Family, while songs like The Drugstore Situation and Apache will surely appeal to fans of Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan’s Gothic Americana. Six beguilingly melodic and highly-literate songs, best lis- tened to by candlelight.


Recorded live at No Recording Studio by John Hannon (Alasdair Roberts, Trembling Bells) the five songs and one instrumental on


Jason Steel’s Crucible Songs take their inspira- tion from Arthur Miller’s 1953 play.


Steel has always been a devout guitarist, but his technical virtuosity arrives modestly attired in songs cut from the finest melodic cloth, with lyrics patiently stitched. Miller’s story of John Proctor’s adulterous relation- ship with Abigail Williams provides a perfect framework for Steel’s unhurried and beauti- fully-sung meditations on grace and disgrace, redemption and sin, performed entirely solo with guitar or banjo.


Each of these CDs has been produced in an edition of just 99 copies, so grab them fast, and grab them all. “Too much is never enough for something that you love…”


rifmountain.com Steve Hunt


CHALAMA PROJECT Agitator Chalama Project B461


Chalama is the Tuvan word for the coloured ribbons tied to the branches of trees in sacred places. And according to their web page “the music of the project is an atmosphere”. But then Tuvan music is always about atmosphere: reproducing natural and ambient sounds and feelings. The obvious face and inspiration of the project is Radik Tyulyush, vocalist, throat- singer and traditional instrumentalist, a for- mer member of Yat-kha and currently a mem- ber of Huun Huur Tu. In the Chalama Project he’s accompanied by an adventurous trio of Sergey Kalachev (fretless bass), Gennady Lavrentiev (tabla tarang and violin) and Alex- ey Saryglar (various traditional percussion instruments and the igil fiddle).


The group features a few unexpected instrumental ploys and some ambient manip- ulations; but the sound is always identifiably Tuvan. Nor should one make too much of these changes which are largely rhythmic; although the first thing one hears is the tuned drums of tabla tarang on the opening track. And although not overused, the instru- ment is very effective in supplementing the more traditional kengirge frame drum and the unlikely sounding khapchyk (a rattle made from sheep knuckles in a dried bull’s scrotum, if you must know). Then there’s the kick-pulse given by fretless bass (notably on Uzhur-La Bar and Kokken Noyan).


There are no sleevenotes but the materi- al, much of which is surprisingly traditional, appears to be about those typically Tuvan inspirations: women, nature, the various styles of throat-singing and of course the rhythm of the horse. Some tunes are more


dramatic, others feature a variety of styles from khoomei throat-singing to melodic tunes in a suitably grasslands style of country- and-eastern. But overall this intelligent use of traditional and modern musical textures and a light touch in the programming, mixing and editing creates a very sympathetic style.


UK availability from The Goshawk Pro- ject. facebook.com/TheGoshawkProject


tyulyush.com Phil Wilson


LOÏC BLEJEAN & TAD SARGENT


Loïc Bléjean, Tad Sargent Aïta Productio Aitaprod002


Loïc Bléjean (uilleann pipes, low whistles) and Tad Sargent (bouzouki, bodhrán, vocals), are seasoned professional musicians with long experience. Some of you may have caught them last summer performing in The Taming Of The Shrew at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, opening both halves of the play with foot-tapping jigs and reels). This is their debut album as a duo.


Performing (mostly) traditional Irish material, Bléjean and Sargent come out of the traps like a pair of electrified greyhounds, performing superb instrumental sets of jigs and reels with driving bouzouki and bodhrán, graceful whistle and wonderful, wailing, ululating, bluesy uilleann pipes!


Loïc Bléjean is from Brittany and has done lots of excellent work there, including playing uilleann pipes in a trio with church organ and soprano saxophone. Bléjean has travelled extensively in Ireland, learning from the Cork master piper Brendan Ring amongst others. As a result, Bléjean has great skill as an uilleann piper plus a real flair for the soul- ful expressiveness of that instrument, in the manner of Moving Hearts and Davy Spillane. Just listen to his spine-tingling rendition of the Irish traditional slow air Sliabh Na mBan, which is included on this album.


Of course, the duo’s fizzing energy also owes much to Londoner Tad Sargent’s driving bouzouki and bodhrán. Throughout the album it is often hard to believe that we are listening to only two people, as Sargent also does vocal duties on Richard Thompson’s Beeswing, John Spillane’s Dunnes Stores Girl and Jimmy MacCarthy’s Missing You. Wow! I am already looking forward to Bléjean and Sargent’s next offering.


blejeansargent.com Paul Matheson Jason Steel with The Straw Bear Band’s Dom Cooper


Photo: © Judith Burrows


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