The Drystones – Apparitions
Shedbuilt Records – 12 April 2019
When you hear a band described as ‘contemporary folk’ you can often make a pretty decent guess at what they are going to sound like. The songs will be middle-of-the-road indie with a dash of accordion or modestly tuneful fiddle, or there will be some well-worn traditional numbers embellished with random electronic bleeps here and there to emphasise the newness of it all. The kind of music – pleasant enough but unobtrusive – that you’d hear in a small chain cafe and then instantly forget. Not in any way traditional but not strictly contemporary either. So on those rare occasions when a band comes along purporting to be something a bit different, to play actual folk music in a genuinely contemporary way, it is worth sitting up and taking note.
The Drystones are one such band. A duo comprising Alex Garden on fiddle and vocals and Ford Collier (guitar, tin whistle, vocals), they are based in Somerset, but their sound shows influences from a wide range of geographical sources, not least Irish and Scottish folk music (Garden has Scottish roots, while Collier was taught tin whistle by Grace Kelly, a regular on Manchester’s rich Irish music scene). The pair got together in 2011 and released their first album – A Tale Of Sound And Fury – three years later, following it up with 2017’s We Happy Few, which earned them a nomination for the BBC’s prestigious Young Folk Award.
While those first recordings were impressive, Apparitions is altogether more uncompromising. Even the title (taken from Shakespeare’s earliest published poem, Venus And Adonis) hints at something larger and more mysterious than what has gone before, and the content does not disappoint. The listener is thrust into the melee from the opening moments – the album’s first note is a wild screech of fiddle. From the off, there is no chance of this being your run of the mill ‘contemporary folk’ album. The first track, Oscar’s ghost, is inspired by the tales of Ossian, apparently apocryphal epic poems published (and probably created) by Scotsman James Macpherson in 1760. The song has a high-concept feel about it, and that is in part because the subject itself began as a kind of high-concept eighteenth-century poetic endeavour. But the sound is fiercely contemporary – in the best, truest sense of the word. Traditional verse forms give way to modern soundscapes. A melancholy fiddle and minimal guitar gives way to the growing rumble of the song’s dark, almost gothic, centre, while the narrative element has a timeless quality.
The instrumental Dean’s is full of sharp musical contrasts. It begins with a glassy shimmer before folding back in on itself to become a neat, percussive fiddle tune, and then opening back out with Collier’s neat guitar work. It is one of those seemingly simple tracks where there is more to be found with every listen. Roll Up, with its recordings of church bells and chattering news broadcasts is a kind of pre-echo of the following song, The Story, which shows the pair at their most political, taking aim at the cynical nature of the media while lamenting the state of a country where queues at food banks have become the norm. It is an angry piece of songwriting, but that anger is masterfully translated into a chorus of persuasive catchiness.
Nonesuch is the apotheosis of the album’s preoccupation with the melding of modern and ancient styles of music. The tune is from 1651, but it is delivered in such a way that it would not sound out of place at four in the morning at an outdoor rave. The splicing of folk music with dance beats has been tried before with varying degrees of success, but The Drystones pull it off with aplomb, largely because of their evident musical prowess, but also because of their natural feel for the dynamics of dance music. Their sense of timing and knack for rhythm is spot on, and they balance reverence with just enough iconoclasm to make you feel like you are listening to something genuinely new.
The album’s slower pieces are equally effective: the instrumental Losing Your Way clocks in at just over a minute but carries an emotional weight that belies its brevity, while the persistent, narrative-driven Jack Crook (which tells the story of Spence Broughton, a highwayman whose gibbeted remains were publicly displayed for thirty-six years after his execution) recalls the best moments of folk rock’s golden era. Daydream showcases Garden’s fiddle at its flighty, impressionistic best before flowing into the traditional Cotton Grass Flowers, which gives Collier’s tin whistle an emotive outing.
Collier and Garden play every instrument on the album, including drums and synthesisers. This fact is made even more extraordinary by the standard of playing on tracks like Poltern, where the sound is simultaneously intricate, intimate and organic, a tightly wound clatter that resolves itself into a swift-flowing melody. The second half of the album is dominated by these increasingly impressive sets of tunes: Breathless is an aptly named combination of blustering tin whistle, subtle electronics and nimble fiddle, three tunes that become increasingly mind-boggling in terms of speed and dexterity while retaining a certain humanity and even humour. The jig/reel combination Rule Of 3 makes a musical maths lesson both fun and emotionally fraught.
Closing tune Rain uses the dynamics of folk music but introduces an altogether wider – and darker – array of styles. There are neo-classical flourishes of cello nestling up against a hard-edged rhythm section that borrows from rock and dance idioms and a spoken word section that situates the piece in a context that recognises both the current predicament of the climate and the historical significance of weather. This song is Apparitions in a microcosm: it draws from a huge palette of influences – often all at once – but creates something that is condensed and unique. It is a rare album that can make traditional music sound truly modern, but The Drystones have managed it here. Apparitions is the kind of album that could change the very meaning of contemporary folk music.
The Drystones Tour Dates
25 Apr – Ashcroft Arts Centre, Fareham, Hampshire
26 Apr – The Lights, Andover, Hampshire
27 Apr – Rope Tackle Arts Centre, Shoreham By Sea, West Sussex
05 May – Bristol Folk Festival
10 May – Kalamazoo Club, London N8
11 May – The Witham, Barnard Castle, County Durham
12 May – Victoria Hall, Settle, North Yorkshire
17 May – Callington Town Hall, Cornwall
26 May – Fire Folk, Parade Gardens, Bath, Somerset
01 Jun – Wirral Folk Festival, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire
02 Jun – Fire In The Mountain Festival, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales
22 Jun – Rockhampton Folk Festival, Rockhampton Gloucestershire
12 Jul – Priddy Folk Festival, Somerset
15 Sep – Priston Music Festival, Priston Nr Bath, Somerset
Apparations is out now and available via Amazon | ProperMusic
https://www.thedrystones.co.uk