India Electric Co. – Tablelands
Self Released – 19 October 2018
Following on from ECIM and Seven Sisters, this is the third and final EP in India Electric Co.’s trilogy of songs contrasting the city and the country and our search for greener pastures in its themes of displacement and unification. It’s the folkier of the three, but, with extensive use of hand drum percussion, still touches on a wide range of rhythmical musical influences, drawing on Norway, sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.
The five-track set opens with Only Waiting, Joseph O’Keefe’s swirling violin affording Balkan shades to the melody while the eastern percussion nods to the Bengali source of the lyrics, namely Song XVII from Rabindranath Tagore’s 1910 Gitanjali or devotional ‘song offerings’, in which he writes “I am only waiting for love to give myself up at last into his hands”, although they omit the phrases ‘for love’ and ‘into his hands’, suggesting here more a mood of weary resignation and soul sickness than spiritual surrender and fulfilment in death.
Pizzicato violin and raindrops introduce Mareeba, named for a town in Queensland, but with the undulating rhythms born of sub-Saharan traditions on a number that, in its ominous lines about “something in the water” and how “maybe it’s time to let go” concerns the soul-destroying nature of living beyond your needs to sustain a life in the city “where backs are turned, and all the hearts don’t matter.”
One to catch radio presenters unawares, the fiddle fading midway through only for its repeated phrase to suddenly return, In Absence bases its melody around Krullafuru, a Norwegian fiddle tune while the imagery about being visited by midnight ghosts (and the phrase “be near me tonight”) draws on the poem of the same name by WWI poet Edward Shanks.
Lila fuses two musical cultures in the Gnawa-like Moroccan rhythms that flow into Irish waters, ending on spare acoustic guitar, the lyric, about the potential wonderment of the city, and yet there being ‘something missing’, inspired by both Elegy In A Country Churchyard, Thomas Gray’s 18th century paean to “humble rustic folk” and Rivers, a lengthy meander from the Avon to the Ganges by early 20th century poet and literary editor Sir John Collings Squire.
Summarising the EP’s concerns, it comes to a close “Torn between the country and the place where no one speaks” on Gold In The North, Stacey accompanied by violin and a simple fingerpicked classical guitar pattern, and, while the notion that “there’s gold in the north and nothing much here” would seem to belie the economic picture, the song, somewhat romantically perhaps, concerns wealth in terms of humanity rather than monetary value.
As such, that resonates with their wholly acoustic tour showcasing the trilogy and which will be symbolically staged in candle-lit historic churches that are no longer in regular use.
In geographical terms, tablelands are plateaus raised significantly above the surrounding area; one might suggest this is an apt metaphor for the duo’s status on the folk landscape.
Tablelands is released 19th October, pre-order via Amazon
India Electric Co. Tour
India Electric Co. will be hosting a series of unique concerts in association with the award-winning The Churches Conservation Trust. Starting in October they will be performing mostly unplugged, intimate candle-lit shows across a selection of churches, no longer in regular use, that include irreplaceable examples of architecture, archaeology and art from 1000 years of history.
To coincide with the completion of our trilogy of EPs exploring different musical and folk themes from the Country and City, we are aiming to bring these shows to more rural communities than we have previously played to and work with the local people in creating a musical setting with a historic backdrop.
See all upcoming tour dates below:
Fri, OCT 05 – Corn Exchange, Faringdon
Sat, OCT 06 – North Cornwall Book Festival, St Endellion
Thu, OCT 11 – St George’s Church, Esher, London
Fri, OCT 12 – Albury Old Saxon Church, Albury
Sat, OCT 13 – All Saints’ Church, East Horndon, East Horndon
Fri, OCT 26 – St Botolph’s Church, Steyning
Sat, OCT 27 – St Mary’s Church, Burham, Kent
Fri, NOV 16 – St James’ Church, Cooling, Kent
Sat, NOV 17 – St Peter’s Church, Swingfield, Dover
More here http://indiaelectricco.com/
Read Rob’s interview with the duo from earlier this year.
Photo Credit: Rob Bridge (Redwood Photography)