Hickory Signals Suistamon Sähkö Seth Lakeman
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fR423 PAGES 100-129 (26 Pgs)_Layout 1 29/11/2018 18:39 Page 6 105 f HICKORY SIGNALS Turn To Fray GF*M Records GFM010 Hickory Signals is the Brighton-based duo Laura Ward and Adam Ronchetti (who also form two-fifths of folk collective Bird In The Belly). Having released two very promising EPs in 2014 and 2016, they’re now ready to release their debut full- length album. It presents an intelligent, atmospheric sequence of songs, mostly origi- nal compositions but with thematically rele- vant side excursions into traditional song. Although the duo’s trademark is Laura’s strong voice, often in tandem with her haunt- ing flute playing, those elements by no means upstage Adam’s complementary gui- tars, banjo and percussion. Credit is also due to album producer Tom Pryor, who plays vio- lin, piano and guitar and is responsible for coordinating some subtly layered string arrangements. There’s a deliberate unity in the songs chosen for this album, in that they explore different aspects of lives at the margins of society that are frayed at the edges and in the process of “unravelling” due to personal crises. These include figures from real life (poets Rosemary Tonks and Zelda Fitzgerald) and a Kurdish refugee (Kana), as well as sce- narios and types familiar from folk song cul- ture (Two Girls). Traditional songs Bushes And Briars and Who Put The Blood focus on women who dare not speak up for them- selves, contrasting with the narrator of Frankie Armstrong’s anthem of empower- ment Doors To My Mind voiced by Laura in a Hickory Signals restrained yet powerful account and given an edgy pulse by Adam’s percussion. more electronic manipulation and cut-up Space Shifters, he probably didn’t have time Hickory Signals have consolidated their editing – but it has kinship in its grainy, pow- to book anywhere weird and wonderful this distinctive sound and approach with this erful non-rock energy, and there’s plenty of time, recording the whole thing in a few days thoughtfully assembled collection of songs. space in that field that hasn’t been colonised in his own garden studio in Dartmoor. But he as much as it could be. did engage the services of producer Ben Hilli- hickorysignals.com The material is part traditional, part er, who has clearly played a key role in an David Kidman band-composed, with strong roots in the hyp- album that Seth likens – with some justifica- notic, narrow-compass melodies of Karelian tion – to a garage band record, with all the traditional music, imbuing them with modern spontaneity, grit and rough-hewn freedom SUISTAMON SÄHKÖ power and lyrics of the post-electricity, indus- that suggests. Etkot, Pectopa Ja Etnotekoa Kihtinäjärvi trial age. The clattering industrial rhythm on LC14502/Nordic Notes NN120 The latest of their videos, a sort of spoof- Judge Not A Man, the chiming backdrop on Western treatment of the album’s opening the ominous The Well Worn Path, Evan Jenk- Reviewing the first Suista- track Hummani Hei, shows just how commit- ins’ formidable drums at the front of the mix, mon Sähkö CD, released in ted, theatrical, witty and self-image-effacing the chunky guitar of Kit Hawes a constant 2015 as part of Anne-Mari the band’s members, barely recognisable in weapon, bass man Ben Nicholls firmly in the Kivimäki’s series revolving dirt and bad dentistry (not their own), are mix on both stand-up and electric… at times around the history of the prepared to be. it sounds like one of Richard Thompson’s evacuated villages of Suista- nordic-notes.de stroppier albums. And very occasionally mo in the Russian, once- there’s a burst of vocals from Seth’s sister-in- Finnish part of Karelia, I Andrew Cronshaw law Kathryn Roberts to add soul, drama and – wrote, “Its insistent patterns with a trusty bout of foot-stomping fiddle – and melodic phrases, dark wild nightmarish- even a touch of folk. ness, restless high-energy industrial power, SETH LAKEMAN fierce and silky vocals and danceability could There’s the odd throwaway track when well evoke comparisons with Trä-period Hed- The Well Worn Path Cooking Vinyl the band meander somewhat aimlessly into a COOKCD709P ningarna, and that’s no bad thing indeed, wilderness of rock and R&B, and Seth still has- n’t completely eradicated the irritating vibra- particularly if they can carry it off, without A lot of guff is written about the effects of to vocal affectation acquired during the pop too obvious lap-toppery, as a live band.” studio, engineers, environment and produc- star years, but he’s come up with some classy Well, a live band is what indeed it ers, though we all know that ultimately an songs too. Educated Man and Lend A Hand – became, gigging substantially in Finland and album’s strength rests on the artist and mate- mature, well-constructed and rather touching occasionally Estonia, Russian Karelia, Norway rial. That said, Seth Lakeman has always had – are good enough to be translated into dif- and Germany, and here’s the second album, a powerful faith in the importance of sur- ferent styles, Fitzsimmon’s Fight follows an following the same path and more so. roundings – he went down a mine to record arresting narrative about Cornwall’s 19th- part of Tales From The Barrel House in 2011, It’s a quartet, with Kivimäki on vocals century heavyweight world champion Bob Word Of Mouth was made in a Cornish and her trademark insistent chugging push- Fitzsimmons, and he even dips his toe into a church in 2014, and he adjourned to a pull 5-row and toy accordeon, Sväng’s Eero bit of politics on Dig New Ground and the Jacobean manor house to record Ballad Of Grundström on gutsy, glitchy electronics and anthemic Divided We Fall. And when all else The Broken Few with Wildwood Kin in 2016 – vocals, and Reeta-Kaisa Iles, Kivimäki’s Puhti fails, he primes his fiddle and off into battle the lyrical themes of each enhanced by atmo- duo colleague, and Tuomas Juntunen on they go. It always works. vocals. It’s not really Hedningarna-like – its sphere as a result. vocals tend towards rappy-spoken with sung Between tours dashing around the globe sethlakeman.co.uk melodic phrases coasting over, and it has with Robert Plant’s band the Sensational Colin Irwin.