This review is written by Dai Woosnam, daigress@hotmail.com, 6/04
This Norwich-based foursome have just celebrated ten years
playing some of the most truly eclectic music on the British folk
scene. And this album demonstrates their sheer class, and their
exuberance.
The array of instruments is enough to make one gulp: and the fact each
musician so obviously knows his way around them, makes one gulp even
more.
Methinks I should not say “he”: vocalist Chris Schwabe also handles
whistles, flute, melodeon and percussion, on top of her duties at the
microphone. Very decent vocal delivery to boot: a voice with a texture
that has something of a Sassenach version of Isla St.Clair’s in it.
The tracks that really stood out were our traditional “The snows they
melt the soonest” and an utterly manic yet brilliant traditional
Yiddish thing called “Oi Tate”. What a tremendous sense of ATTACK they
bring to it.
Indeed the whole CD is characterised by this band constantly using
their thinking caps, and coming up with the right mood for each
particular number. Whether sensitivity or brio is called for, they
repeatedly deliver throughout this album.
Dai Woosnam
Grimsby, England
daigress@hotmail.com
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