Quinie / Jacken Elswyth
Betwixt & Between 4
UK Betwixt & Between no number Cassette/DL (2019)
Excellent unsolicited surprise arrival through the letterbox here. And on cassette too, today’s favoured format of the avant-garde. A split release, so a side each for Glasgow based Quinie, accompanied by friends Gordon Bruce and Tom Merewether and Betwixt & Between head Jacken Elswyth who resides in London. Elswyth and her cohorts are part of a growing movement gaining a reputation for continuing the folk tradition. Any folk music scholar/enthusiast will probably tell you how the songs have been and should be passed down through time, with no proscribed limits on interpretation per se, thus keeping the tradition alive, current and relevant. This, I suspect, is an important part of Elswyth’s motivation. She’s also an excellent banjo player, as evidenced here.
On the other side of the tape, Quinie sings songs “…embellished with occasional bells, whistles and percussion interspersed with odd interludes of reedy drone” These drones are fantastic - not at all in a “ambient/dark/moody” kind of way; more playful and upbeat and possibly played with good humour on reed-based instruments associated with traditional Scottish music, I suspect. I was not 100% sure whether Quinie is the name of the band or an alias of the singer/artist Josie Vallely until I turned up Vallely’s website where she states “…I have a personal practice under the name Quinie that brings together my interest in Scots song, sense of place and an investigation of women’s representation in the Scottish Tradition”. Of the six tunes here, half are songs by Matt McGuinn (“Red Yoyo”), Duncan MacRae (“Wee Cock Sparra”) and Lizzie Higgins, (“Wha’s at the Windy”). Vallely’s delivery is captivating and the weird musical attenuations lend proceedings a mysterious feeling. Really beautiful stuff.
Alula Down / Jacken Elswyth
Betwixt & Between 5
UK Betwixt & Between no number CD/DL (2019)
This is sent from Betwixt & Between’s Jacken Elswyth, here presenting her amazing banjo-picking skills - “clawhammer” I believe might be the accurate terminology, but I stand to be corrected if I’ve completely misunderstood the term - and in keeping with the B&B series, alongside four songs from Hereford-based Alula Down, a duo of Kate Gathercole and Mark Waters who do a nice line in gently delayed acoustic guitar and drone-making harmonium, glass harmonica (one of my all-time favourite instruments to listen to - check out also sound artist Camille Norment's recent work) and “gentle feedback” better to accompany the singer’s voice with. Both artists’ approach are based in the folk idiom - an area of music I think I should mention I know very little about - in fact, they both present versions of a traditional (the one Peter Bellamy recorded in the 1970s?) song called “Sweet Lemeny” but with very different results. Elswyth also uses a drone as an accompaniment, the exact nature of which is not stated on the cassette sleeve, but reading through the text on the B&B Bandcamp site it appears to be bowed banjo. “Last Chance set”, my favourite of her three pieces is a range of extrapolations of the Appalachian dance tune.
Aside from their version of “Sweet Lemeny”, Alula Down contribute three bird-themed songs, “Sprig of Thyme”, “Three Ravens” and “Blackbird”. The acoustic guitar on “Sprig of Thyme” is processed ever so lightly with echo, making not an eerie sound, but producing a very bright and active clarity. On “Sweet lemeny” a repeated series of plucked harmonics shifting the guitar into otherworldliness by way of filtering or eq-ed overdrive, while Gathercole’s vocals are treated with subtly ever increasing tape echoes creates a sublime result. The duo’s use of feedback, harmonium and glass harmonica on “Three Ravens” is similarly effective, paired as they are with Gathercole’s close-mic’ed, intimate vocal. “Blackbird” pushed the guitarist right towards the back of the room, it seems, while gradually letting the sounds of the fields outside the walls of the studio back in.
Ryan Eyers / Jacken Elswyth
Betwixt & Between 6
UK Betwixt & Between no number Cassette/DL (2020)
Since receiving B&B numbers #4 and #5, I have received #6 and randomly met Jacken Elswyth in person at a TST (record stall) pop-up at the Evening Star in Brighton thus putting a face to this excellent series of releases. Jacken‘s side begins with a seven minute rendition of Jon Bekoff’s “Lone Prairie”. The tune is cyclical and Elswyth adds drones which almost segue into the start of the following song, “Caravan” by Mark Stevenson. Stevenson is a contemporary figure in the British folk scene
In “Improvisation for amplified banjo(29.3)” Elswyth bucks tradition by utilizing probably something as simple as a transducer or contact mic on the banjo through the nearest guitar amp. But what a sound! Clouds of upper harmonics and the abstracted character of the set-up made the instrument unrecognisable to me in the opening moments. This piece affected me in a similar way as did Rhodri Davies’ processed harp recordings on Wound Response from 2012. The joy of hearing the unexpected; the reversal of what the instrument was designed to be. The world swings back on its axis for the two and a quarter minutes of acoustic “Improvisation for banjo (30.1)”.
On Ryan Eyers’ side we are treated to five “short sketches” of solo drumming on what to my ears seems to be a jazz-style full kit. Unusual as solo kit drum recordings may be, this work serves as more than just an introduction to Eyers’ skills or some kind of showcase simply to generate future employment. Perhaps referencing the recent prevalence of online “sample-packs” by certain synthesiser enthusiasts, Eyers sees it as much a resource as a finished work. The pieces certainly sound great - facilitated by someone who knows how to mic up a drumkit; perhaps Eyers himself? Named as sketches, these three-something minute pieces are exactly that, and thus surely that is their nature. The first piece serves as a kind of ritual beginning to proceedings - setting the scene, settling the mind, focussing the body. The minimalist development of “Sketch 2” reminds me of Nissenenmondai’s singleminded sticksperson Sayaka Himeno, but Eyers puts far more variation into these three minutes than Himeno usually does. “ Sketch 3” is a full-tilt syncopated riot, Andy Ramsay-like but without any convoluted motorik. I can imagine it as the backbone to a Stereolab-influenced piece by someone somewhere. “Sketch 4” is an absorbing journey into repetition and melody, which flows neatly into “Sketch 5” utilizes tuned toms and hi-hat exclusively to produce something between Afrobeat and The Butthole Surfers.
I suspect physical editions of items in this series are and will be made available in tiny editions, but the good news is all seem to be available as digital downloads alongside previous items B&Bs 1-3. For further folk edification, see the Bancamp site. A fine - in both senses of the word - strand of the current doings in the UK folk idiom.
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