Started with an oldie, may as well throw a new one into the mix. Although ‘new’ is pushing a bit when William Blake is one of the contributing lyricists.
Blimey, how to describe this lot? A band of psychedelic folky magpies featuring a guitarist from The Verve/The Good, The Bad & The Queen and a drummer who occasionally pops up with The Fireman, fronted by an Orcadian vocalist who – rightly – insists that British folk songs belong to all of us? Yup, that just about covers it…
I strongly suspect that, when the end of year lists are being compiled, this will be in many a ‘best-of’, despite it’s unseasonal release – coming on Jan 25 of this year, it will probably find its niche a bit later in the year when the sun comes out. Of all the high-quality albums released this year so far, this is the one that I’ve returned to most frequently and most readily. I love this record.
A very early review of Jane’s Addiction’s sound at the back end of the 1980s suggested that they sounded like nobody you’ve ever heard of, because they sounded like everyone you’d ever heard, all at the same time. This can also be applied to Erland Cooper’s collective, who lift influences from all over the place and gleefully skip off with them. To be fair, this musical and lyrical pilfering is something that E&TC are completely upfront about, and in keeping with the old traditions, they take whatever material they use to create something new and vibrant.
Tha album’s cover has the air of tweedy paganism reminiscent of The (thankfully bee-less original) Wicker Man‘s Lord Summerisle, and indeed opening track Love is a Killing Thing is preceded by a strange intro that brings to mind the strange procession that begins the film’s final act. And this meeting of old and new continues throughout, with lyrics cribbed from both William Blake and Leonard Cohen, an 18th-Century tale of a huge sheep and even old trad chestnuts Greensleeves and Blackwaterside are given a modern twist. Even the band’s name is half-inched, taken from Jackson C.Frank’s My Name is Carnival – and if that wasn’t enough, they nick the song as well for one of the album’s highlights.
Of course all this would be a mess if it wasn’t for the fact that it all revolves around a delightful core of the sort of good-natured psychedelic quirkiness favoured by Joe Meek and Piper-era Pink Floyd. With very John Densmore-ey drumming throughout. And all of this is served up with a fairly modern pop twist which sometimes seems at odds with some of the more trad-folky lyrical phrasing (“He would go to Chester College/For to get a bit of knowledge” being a standout example), but all this apparent clutter comes together beautifully to create a delightfully mad album full of the joys of making music, even if it’s sometimes someone else’s. And, quite frankly, I really love delightfully mad music.
Hear what they’re up to on their website: http://www.erlandandthecarnival.com
I include this today as I first heard this band perform a live session of BBC Radio 2′s excellent evening show hosted by Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie, a show that I today found out is to be cut from four nights a week to three. That’s a 25% reduction in my radio music-listening habits, and a terrible shame when they push such great new talent as well as celebrate classic material.
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