Various – Instant Replay
ECC Records – 14 June 2019
Available only as a vinyl triple album (along with a USB card containing all tracks as high quality .wav files) and curated by Lush stores founder Mark Constantine, this is an ambitious 32-track collection of newly recorded covers of songs originally released between 1971 and 1981, the original artists as diverse as those reinterpreting then, embracing the worlds of folk, jazz, indie and pop. The release is a follow-up to 2017’s acclaimed compilation album The Self Preservation Society which was again curated by Mark and reviewed here.
First up are Honeyfeet, a seven-piece ‘folk hop’ outfit, who, dispensing with the original’s piano intro in favour of a blues harp wail, get things underway with Ríoghnach Connolly on vocals for a suitably chugging take on Jethro Tull’s Locomotive Breath. They return on the second disc for a rhythmically pulsing, sensually sung Brass In Pocket, harmonica again adding bluesy textures, and again on side five for a whisperingly spooked reading of Emotional Rescue, an amniotic wash of synths punctuated by sudden sonic eruptions.
Perversely perhaps, punk trio The Kenneths lay into Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk, hammering the drums and giving the refrain a vicious stabbing, subsequently resurfacing on side six for an increasingly more abrasive Werewolves of London (which, by way of a link, originally featured the Mac’s rhythm section). I confess many of the names here are unknown to me, an early case in point being Gamesteacher who delivers a fairly faithful version of The Hansbach, a Celtic dervish concoction from Rick Wakeman’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth, as well as a full band version of Vangelis’s synth classic Pulstar with Gong drummer Cheb Nettles laying down the rhythm track.
There’s a couple of other instrumental choices, appearing back to back on the second side, the first being Rhodri Marsden’s revisiting of Tubular Bells (excerpt), with the narration by the album’s original co-producer Simon Heyworth, followed by the Irish traditional The Belfast Hornpipe, here by Na Cliaraí. The latter’s one of two selections from the folk genre, the other being Anne Briggs’ Tangled Man off her 1971 album The Time Has Come given a highly respectful multi-tracked vocal, acoustic treatment here in a rare outing by Scritti Politti’s Green Gartside. Marsden also crops up in another guise as half of Wattle & Daub alongside Hot Chip instrumentalist Rob Smoughton for a good time mirror ball funk through Dan Hartman’s Instant Replay.
Among the other unfamiliar names, to my ears anyway, there’s Max Poscente, the Dallas-born frontman with Boston’s About You, who, with a little sax help from saxman Terry Edwards, pounds and swaggers his way through Mott The Hoople’s All The Way From Memphis. Also from Stateside, former bassist with Replacements and Guns ‘n’ Roses, Tommy Stinson steps up as part of Bash & Pop for a fine rootsy rework of Rod Stewart’s Mandolin Wind off 1971’s Every Picture Tells A Story.
Representing UK indie, female electro-pop trio Stealing Sheep get to make their mark with a synthpop reimagining of Heart’s steamrollering Barracuda (as well as Peter Gabriel’s Excuse Me as a bonus cut) while, elsewhere Sheema Mukherjee brings sitar to bear on The Clash’s Lost In The Supermarket and there’s a further world music contribution from Afro Celt Sound System bringing a snake charmer rhythmic groove to Jon and Vangelis hit State of Independence.
But where, you ask, is the folk scene input? Actually, it’s pretty considerable and involves some of the leading contemporary lights, not the least being Eliza Carthy lurching her way through a clanking junkyard stomp across Down and Out from Paul Williams’ soundtrack to Bugsy Malone. Another first family of folk name can be found with two numbers by Marry Waterson, a dank and leafy reimagining of The Cure’s Saturday Night and, featuring a minute-long electronic wash intro, a stripped down version of Robert Palmer’s Johnny and Mary on which she’s accompanied by cellist Barney Morse Brown.
In turn, he also blends his strings with Jackie Oates’s violin for a short but sweet pizzicato chamber folk interpretation of The Jam’s Liza Radley, while Oates can also be heard on an oompah rhythm arrangement of Grace Darling, the closing number from The Strawbs’ 1975 Ghosts album, where, as Atlas and the Pleiades she’s joined by Mira Manga, Angie Pollock, Rosie Doonan and a flock of seagulls. Doonan gets her own spotlight on side 4 with a graceful, vocally soaring, acoustic arrangement of Judee Sill’s The Kiss on which she’s backed by harpist Ruth Wall.
Another folk dynasty’s represented by Teddy Thompson who weaves a folk spell over two soul numbers, simply accompanying himself on ukulele on Stevie Wonder’s It’s Magic and getting into a keys, upright bass and drums backed groove for a terrific cover of Marvin Gaye classic What’s Going On. Then, towards the end of side 6, Martha Tilston offers up another classic with her gorgeous piano-accompanied, smokily sung cover of Carole King’s You’ve Got A Friend.
A lesser known figure on the folk scene, but still well worth inclusion Ben Murray both rescues Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s Still You Turn Me On from prog excess and takes the tempo down slightly on Al Stewart’s Amsterdam.
Along with contributions from One eskimO, The Free French, Piney Gir and the first collaboration between Working Week and Julie Tippets since 1989, there’s also a further four bonus tracks on a USB card, including a cover of Grease by Nuala Davies featuring Elysian Quartet violinist Jennymay Logan, Water Bearer, the title track from Sally Oldfield’s 1978 album by ECC act Beagle & Amalthea and Palm Skin Productions’ six-minute revival of Fad Gadget’s electro-folk Back To Nature, the second single ever released on Mute. Overall, the album features more than enough invention, inspiration and at times outright eccentricity to ensure there’s something that’ll push your instant replay button.