Mike Ainscoe Spring 2016 Round Up
PILGRIMS’ WAY – ‘RED DIESEL’
Fellside Records
Stockport’s finest? Possibly! There are actually quite a few bands, Mohawk Radio included, who have ‘officially’ secured that very same title which Pure 107.8FM like to divvy out now and again. Pilgrim’s Way are a band who got it together in The Crown pub under Stockport’s famous viaduct – a landmark we pass every week on the way into the studio – such that we automatically feel some connection with them.
After seeing them play at English Folk Expo a couple of years back, they dipped under the radar while singer Lucy Wright took time out to finish a PhD, but now they’re back with a corker of a new album, proving that sometimes it’s worth the wait. Five years’ worth in fact. Featuring the excellent fiddling of Tom Kitching, we’ve aired the sprightly opening track ‘Rout Of The Blues’ on the show, but there’s a fair feast in the range beyond the folk core amongst the ten tracks. Not only that, but you’ll hear in the region of forty instruments between the band. Edwin Beasant, plays for example, melodeon, bodhran, trombone and all manner of guitars. Jon Loomes, if it’s possible, has an even broader musical spectrum.
The Pilgrims stretch out transforming a Playford tune into nearly eight minutes of ‘Ride In The Creel’ and they even have a stately stab at Paul Simon’s ‘Boy In The Bubble’ as well as the Incredible String Band’s ‘Chinese White’, retitled ‘Magic Christmas Tree’, taking the song one step further (“even weirder” in their own words) with some brass no less. From the dark to the light, they explore the familiar and the vaguely bizarre as parents, sex, parental disapproval of sex, baboons (not related to the former) and white hares all take on key roles in the songs.
‘Red Diesel’ turns out to be just more than a welcome comeback; full of fun playing and brisk and jolly tunes, it’s fab to have The Pilgrims back.
THE FIVE WORD REVIEW: Gives folk a good name.
4SQUARE – ‘FUEL’
Transition Records
So Manchester’s furious folk foursome – so their website tells us – who’ve been together for eight years, through the ups and downs of playing and touring ,arrive with their fourth album. Manchester origins but now spread further afield, it adds up to a year’s worth of writing and recording and suddenly you have ‘Fuel’ the album – as opposed to ‘Fuel’ the title track, and of course Fuel the café in Withington where the aforementioned track was composed. Anyway, organic and as self made as it could be with no studios or engineers, just home recording and working from a tune or song from the traditional folk frame and twisting it into something which sees it merging into fresh fields. That’s the plan.
All originals alongside the sole cover of James Taylor’s ‘Enough To Be On Your Way’ which goes some way to showing how 4Square swing towards a more jazzy sound. Instrumental workouts are interspersed with songs such as ‘Brave’, the story of a returning war hero and ‘Message From Cloud Nine’, whose jolly tune seems slightly at odds with a set of reflective lyrics about loss and longing. However, it’s as a foursome on tune sets they excel – the album bookended with a couple of belters ‘Ignition’ and ‘Balls To Balls’ and the false sense of security in the slow build up before folking out in the title track.
THE FIVE WORD REVIEW: Uptown funk? Nah - Uptown folk!!
RUSTY SHACKLE – ‘DUSK’
Get Folked Records
Anything released on Get Folked Records gets our thumbs up immediately. A couple of tracks from the album were aired on the show recently, the catchy, ‘Last Stop On The Line’ and the opening track ‘When The Morning Comes’ which has the attractive elements of some fine Lakeman-ish fiddling.
‘Dusk’ is the band’s third album, a combination of their trademark folk roots sound with the added drive and urgency provided by electric guitar and drums. And trumpet. Energy, passion and fire are catchwords which go hand in hand with Rusty Shackle, the Lakeman and Springsteen influence at their core (and being a big fan of both, that’s a compliment born of a knowledge and appreciation of both their work). You can understand why they are mainstays on the festival circuit. Rollicking tunes cut with some calm and sensitivity for the odd breather – ‘You Are My Lantern’ and ‘Stolen Letters’ are duly thoughtful and intimate and they tackle the quirky with ‘Ellioaey Island’. While they’re not what you’d call fillers, they do leave you wanting the band to stoke the fire and break into something that fuels some passion and fervour in the belly.
For anyone, ie, the impressionable youngsters, who are getting into their folk by listening to Mumford & Sons, check out how it should be done.
THE FIVE WORD REVIEW: Alternative electric folk’s finest.
THE WONDER STUFF – ’30 GOES ROUND THE SUN’
IRL Records
The Wonder Stuff will certainly take some people back a year or several. Headliners at the 2015 Ramsbottom Festival now with their ranks swelled by the-excellent-in-his-own-right-as-a-solo-artist (having seen him support Seth Lakeman) Dan Donnelly, TWS seem to be on something of a second coming/second wind. Celebrating a 30 year anniversary – the album was actually released 30 years to the day since the band first walked into a rehearsal studio on 19th March 1996, the guys have teamed up with noted metal producer Simon Efemey for a double celebration with main man Miles Hunt also hitting 50.
Although ‘30 Goes…’ has been a more collaborative effort, Miles is still the man who takes charge of the lyrics and inspired by a return to their old Stourbridge stomping ground he’s as astute if not quite as caustic as ever. From ‘Don’t You Ever’ through to the title track, they provide the bread of a sandwich packed with a batch of familiar bright and friendly demi-anthems. The stuttering funk and fiddle of ‘Weakened’ and ‘The Affirmation’ offer up something more sharp, weightier and challenging, and of course, anything with a fiddle lead is going to have a Levellers comparison which the casual fans will latch onto, yet there’s plenty for the ‘in deep’ fans to lap up. As you’d maybe expect from a band thirty years down the road, the waistlines might have expanded a little and the attitude might not be as venomous, so much that a new album of material is cause for more of a celebration that after all this time, they’re glad to still be able to do this and can continue to resist the temptation to grow old gracefully.
THE FIVE WORD REVIEW: Same-ish as it ever was.
NINEBARROW – ‘RELEASING THE LEAVES’
Ninebarrow label
Their first album took FATEA’s 2014 debut album of the year amongst many other accolades and nominations as well as getting the thumbs up from Seth Lakeman and Mike Harding. The Dorest duo of Jon Whitley and Jay Labouchardiere
String arrangements, mainly through Lee Cuff’s cello, plus the occasional depth from Joe Limburn’s double bass gives an ever so regal classical coating to several of the numbers. A pair of voices which in combination are soft and easy to listen to – not dissimilar from Jim Moray – and the combination of original and traditional sourced material blends well enough that it’s difficult to spot the joins. Variety and refinement are becoming trademarks of the Ninebarrow sound.
They turn in a fantastic job on the handful of traditional songs – the drones behind ‘Lord Exmouth’ and ‘Dark Eyed Sailor’ (inspired by Olivia Chaney and for once a happy ending) allowing the words and stories to come through bold and clear. Of the self penned material, ‘Blood On The Hillside’ brings a traditional feel to a contemporary song, and like the other originals on the album, has a strong Dorset connection in its origins – walks to the pub across open landscapes or local traditions.
In a package which shows that care and attention reap the rewards, you not only get the colourfully decorated digipack with the CD, but also a lovely slightly larger format 32 page printed songbook (also in digital from as with the online first album songbook) containing lyrics, photographs and stories behind the songs. Great for those who’s failing eyesight struggles with the minute print of the regular CD booklets.
THE FIVE WORD REVIEW: Superb arrangements and musical subtlety
About the Author
Mike Ainscoe Mike's mellowed in his old age, discovering the delights of traditional folk and acoustic music and the constant stream of new music coming through his passion as a gig-goer, music photographer and writer. With favourite artists and favourite songs which change daily, even hourly, he adds another spoke to the Sonic Bandwagon wheel of fortune.
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