The Rowan Amber Mill – Among the Gorse to Settle Scores
Miller Sounds – 26 June 2020
The Rowan Amber Mill is the performing name of alt-folk songwriter, singer and musician Stephen Stannard, whose earlier collaborations with Angeline Morrison (as Rowan:Morrison) – In Sunshine We Rode The Horses and the winter-themed collection Fields Of Frost – have both been reviewed on Folk Radio.
On this latest collection, which was recorded during lockdown, Stephen has collaborated with Kim Guy (who had previously worked with Stephen Hunt in the duo Corncrow) to perform a mini-album of new interpretations of five traditional songs. Four of them feature full backings, while the fifth is done acappella; a sixth (bonus) cut delivers an “acoustic edit” of an earlier track (Black Is The Colour). From past showings, I’d guess that Stannard himself is responsible for all the instrumentation – which is both fulsome and creatively scored and much in the tradition of psych-folk-pop.
This latter style does however have the slight disadvantage of imparting a certain air of homogeneity to the proceedings, not least in the sense that the lyrics can sometimes seem subservient to – or less important than – the sound of the scoring. A good example of this is Blackleg Miner, which is done as a jangly poppy-folky singalong with rhythm section; it falls some way short of a response to the lyric, though perhaps that’s not its intention. Black Is The Colour is done as a spacey pop ballad and manages to retain something of the ethereal devotional flavour of the folk lyric.
Rufford Park Poachers, the mini-album’s centrepiece, is probably its most successful essay – an almost other-worldly sounding take which maintains a darkly epic brooding quality and some tasty electric guitar soloing. Hares On The Mountain is almost ephemeral in comparison, with a strangely sweet chamber-folk texture which crosses early Pink Floyd with John Cale/Velvets and seems mildly at odds with the song’s warning message. But probably the most disturbing track is Three Ravens, done in an excessively reverberant acappella with inventive harmonies and layerings.
As ever, Stephen Stannard has produced a record which much in spite of its surface gloss exhibits a powerful identity that belies a superficial apparent lack of depth of response to the texts.
Among the Gorse to Settle Scores comes in a choice of two formats: as well as a digital download, there’s a deluxe CD edition. This consists of three double-sided prints, two metal badges, four stickers, a hand-numbered limited edition certificate, and a retro vinyl CD-r, all housed in a full colour deluxe metal tin. Full marks again for creative presentation.
Order via Bandcamp: https://rowanambermill.bandcamp.com/album/among-the-gorse-to-settle-scores