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| Track list: 1. The Captain’s Apprentice 2. New York Trader 3. Wintersinging 4. The Guvna 5. Sick Old Man 6. Nest 7. Fisherman 8. Get Kalsi 9. Washing Song 10. Bending the Dark Running time: 55 minutes Released: 2012 |
The Imagined Village. I liked their first album a lot but then soured on them a bit. I have, however, stumbled across a very positive BBC Music review of this album in the process of preparing for this post so perhaps it is a good thing to be revisiting this again. To not influence any reading of this piece, I leave the link to the end.
I have been a bit quiet here of late - nothing for over a week. I may be back from my holidays but I have been tied up one way or another - busy evenings, a weekend with the niece and nephew, tiredness and, significantly, the cricket commentaries coming from the West Indies where England are playing. These have filled up the evenings when I have been around, and I can't listen to two things at once. I have other things on the go that I haven't got to in my evenings, too - for example i am now 2 sessions behind writing up my Albion game. I was going to address that yesterday until I got caught in an accident tailback (two, actually) and it took almost 3 hours to get home from work, normally 40 minutes away, and so I was not in a mood conducive to writing.
Enough grumbling, I have just about managed to find a window for this within 2 weeks of the last post so lets dive in. The opening is an unaccompanied female voice, Jacqui Oates, that I recognise as one of The Winterset backing Rachel Unthank on The Bairns; we then get percussion and eventually a top end joining in. When the vocal returns it is, instead, Eliza Carthy. This is one of the things that attracted me to The Imagined Village - the range of musicians involved. This line up is different from that on their debut; there is overlap but some have gone, some have arrived.
Of course Carthy's vocal is also a different track to Oates' and so, I presume, was the top end. I just missed the transition... rustiness showing immediately. It makes more sense this way, mind. New York Trader is quite a rich number, blending a lot of different influences - another plus from The Imagined Village concept and range of contributers - compared to the sparseness of the short opener.
Two and a bit tracks in now, and I am again reminded about how thin the lines between genre can be, and in places you may not expect. Here on Wintersinging the percussion is persistent and incessant in a manner not unlike something you might hear in a club, weighted by the bass of Ali Friend of Clayhill and more pertinently Red Snapper, who I have seen (on video alas) doing Drum 'n' Bass live with an upright bass. The difference is in the composition of the top end - what instruments are involved - and, crucially I think, the relative volumes of the parts. I really like this track, both as an example of the fragility of genre as a concept and more simply as a piece of music. I am already much better disposed to this album than I was expecting to be before reading up on it.
The Guvna is a disappointment as a follow up - I think it misses something from not having any vocal. I recall this track being called out in the BBC piece but I read that nearer 3 weeks ago and cannot recall why. I still worry that it is influencing my opinion, but the track is simply lacking engagement. It's not unpleasant or anything, just... bland? Thankfully a singer is reintroduced for the next track, which includes Raggle Taggle Gypsy, which I am more familiar with from The Waterboys. This track again features Friend's distinctive twangy bass, with which I am very familiar, the notes he leaves phrases on, the structures of his hooks here, could come straight from a Red Snapper record, which is a fine thing as far as I am concerned.
Tonal shift. A softer song, less bassy, percussion relegated to supporting role rather than dominant structure, and back to Oates as vocalist, albeit sharing some duties with Carthy and a male voice - which one of the candidates I can't pin down by ear. Nest is alright, but I am immediately drawn in to the dark tone of the following track, a sleazy but enticing schmooze with a rich arrangement that pairs really well with Carthy's signing. This feels less folk, more noir despite being titled Fisherman. I love it.
Its not as if I have been completely music free in the weeks intervening between this and posting Beat the Champ - but it feels good to give time to some music again, even as I simultaneously distract myself by typing and glancing every now and again at the silent snooker on the TV. I have not managed to immerse myself in listening to anything else in the interim. Even in yesterdays snore-fest of a drive home there was no music, TMS kept me entertained instead as the cricket is back on, and forms one reason why I am forcing myself to do this listen mid-morning, else it could be another half week before I get to anything.
I have found the more percussive numbers, the grungier less folky numbers more interesting on this disc but I do appreciate the wandering styles, and Washing Song being predominantly stripped back to Carthy, a keyboard and fiddle is a strong counter to some of the earlier sounds. As I head into the last track I can honestly say I have really enjoyed this listen, but I am concerned it might all be destroyed by stupid silence given the 12 minute length of the title track. Hopefully its actually all music all the way - seems quite likely with the way the piece has started - a sort of rolling amalgam of the various styles of the individual contributors, rather than a coherently directed effort. As I type that it drops into sparse wandering, which would be dull except it brings to mind summer days. When it starts to build again I find it less interesting, a return to the busy but flat sound that The Guvna brought.
I hear in there a melody that I recognised, but could not place. Checking liner notes, it references The Cuckoo's Nest which immediately makes sense. That phase passes and we enter some serious drumming. To be honest I find this a shambles. The best songs on this album were tightly crafted works, using the different influences and contributors but pulling in one direction. This closer is undirected which means that whilst different aspects of it are quite decent the overall impression is not strong.
So, a disappointing close, but overall a very worthwhile album with a few tracks I enjoyed immensely. That title track goes. The other disappointing ones... I think I need another time through, or perhaps to listen to them isolated from the pieces that were so much better.
The BBC review I mentioned is here, by the way.
I have been a bit quiet here of late - nothing for over a week. I may be back from my holidays but I have been tied up one way or another - busy evenings, a weekend with the niece and nephew, tiredness and, significantly, the cricket commentaries coming from the West Indies where England are playing. These have filled up the evenings when I have been around, and I can't listen to two things at once. I have other things on the go that I haven't got to in my evenings, too - for example i am now 2 sessions behind writing up my Albion game. I was going to address that yesterday until I got caught in an accident tailback (two, actually) and it took almost 3 hours to get home from work, normally 40 minutes away, and so I was not in a mood conducive to writing.
Enough grumbling, I have just about managed to find a window for this within 2 weeks of the last post so lets dive in. The opening is an unaccompanied female voice, Jacqui Oates, that I recognise as one of The Winterset backing Rachel Unthank on The Bairns; we then get percussion and eventually a top end joining in. When the vocal returns it is, instead, Eliza Carthy. This is one of the things that attracted me to The Imagined Village - the range of musicians involved. This line up is different from that on their debut; there is overlap but some have gone, some have arrived.
Of course Carthy's vocal is also a different track to Oates' and so, I presume, was the top end. I just missed the transition... rustiness showing immediately. It makes more sense this way, mind. New York Trader is quite a rich number, blending a lot of different influences - another plus from The Imagined Village concept and range of contributers - compared to the sparseness of the short opener.
Two and a bit tracks in now, and I am again reminded about how thin the lines between genre can be, and in places you may not expect. Here on Wintersinging the percussion is persistent and incessant in a manner not unlike something you might hear in a club, weighted by the bass of Ali Friend of Clayhill and more pertinently Red Snapper, who I have seen (on video alas) doing Drum 'n' Bass live with an upright bass. The difference is in the composition of the top end - what instruments are involved - and, crucially I think, the relative volumes of the parts. I really like this track, both as an example of the fragility of genre as a concept and more simply as a piece of music. I am already much better disposed to this album than I was expecting to be before reading up on it.
The Guvna is a disappointment as a follow up - I think it misses something from not having any vocal. I recall this track being called out in the BBC piece but I read that nearer 3 weeks ago and cannot recall why. I still worry that it is influencing my opinion, but the track is simply lacking engagement. It's not unpleasant or anything, just... bland? Thankfully a singer is reintroduced for the next track, which includes Raggle Taggle Gypsy, which I am more familiar with from The Waterboys. This track again features Friend's distinctive twangy bass, with which I am very familiar, the notes he leaves phrases on, the structures of his hooks here, could come straight from a Red Snapper record, which is a fine thing as far as I am concerned.
Tonal shift. A softer song, less bassy, percussion relegated to supporting role rather than dominant structure, and back to Oates as vocalist, albeit sharing some duties with Carthy and a male voice - which one of the candidates I can't pin down by ear. Nest is alright, but I am immediately drawn in to the dark tone of the following track, a sleazy but enticing schmooze with a rich arrangement that pairs really well with Carthy's signing. This feels less folk, more noir despite being titled Fisherman. I love it.
Its not as if I have been completely music free in the weeks intervening between this and posting Beat the Champ - but it feels good to give time to some music again, even as I simultaneously distract myself by typing and glancing every now and again at the silent snooker on the TV. I have not managed to immerse myself in listening to anything else in the interim. Even in yesterdays snore-fest of a drive home there was no music, TMS kept me entertained instead as the cricket is back on, and forms one reason why I am forcing myself to do this listen mid-morning, else it could be another half week before I get to anything.
I have found the more percussive numbers, the grungier less folky numbers more interesting on this disc but I do appreciate the wandering styles, and Washing Song being predominantly stripped back to Carthy, a keyboard and fiddle is a strong counter to some of the earlier sounds. As I head into the last track I can honestly say I have really enjoyed this listen, but I am concerned it might all be destroyed by stupid silence given the 12 minute length of the title track. Hopefully its actually all music all the way - seems quite likely with the way the piece has started - a sort of rolling amalgam of the various styles of the individual contributors, rather than a coherently directed effort. As I type that it drops into sparse wandering, which would be dull except it brings to mind summer days. When it starts to build again I find it less interesting, a return to the busy but flat sound that The Guvna brought.
I hear in there a melody that I recognised, but could not place. Checking liner notes, it references The Cuckoo's Nest which immediately makes sense. That phase passes and we enter some serious drumming. To be honest I find this a shambles. The best songs on this album were tightly crafted works, using the different influences and contributors but pulling in one direction. This closer is undirected which means that whilst different aspects of it are quite decent the overall impression is not strong.
So, a disappointing close, but overall a very worthwhile album with a few tracks I enjoyed immensely. That title track goes. The other disappointing ones... I think I need another time through, or perhaps to listen to them isolated from the pieces that were so much better.
The BBC review I mentioned is here, by the way.
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