Lunatraktors – Bonefires
Independent – 16 October 2020
If you didn’t have the good fortune or good taste to indulge yourself in the Lunatraktors debut album from last year – This Is Broken Folk, the music comprising solely choreographer Carli Jefferson’s tuned folk drums, body percussion and non-binary folk singer Clair Le Couteur’s harmonium, whistles and four-octave vocal range, then this EP affords an opportunity to sample their unique take on traditional folk.
The wordplay title designed to mark the Oct 16 anniversary of the burning of the houses of parliament in 1834, it comprises four tracks that embrace very divergent approaches, opening with the stentorian bass baritone of Couteur on Black Raven II, a slightly shorter revisiting of the Cossack war song that opened the album, deepening Jefferson’s military drums and expanding to include piano and choral harmonies.
The Irish-Australian 16,000 Miles gets taken by the scruff of the neck and shaken, subjected to a discordant, fractured melody scraped out with analogue bass and melodica, the manic vocals delivering the lyrics as though suddenly looming up and slapping you in the face, sometimes spoken, the familiar toora looras sounding like they’re being mangled like a vehement goblin.
There’s more distortion added to Unquiet Grave with its ghostly Irish whistle and effects, rumbling drum and percussion rhythm and bowed cymbal, rewritten and reworked as a critique of Tory austerity and those who perished as a result.
Lunatraktors end with a festive note, bringing their own distinctive take on Holly & Ivy, the basic melody still evident, but the carol otherwise reshaped with off-beat polyrhythms, four-part harmony, harmonium, clog dance and a Middle Ages variation on the lyrics, rather than the more familiar lines, to accentuate its pagan origins. Not perhaps for those of faint folk heart, but for those who like to live and listen dangerously, this is invigorating stuff.
Pre-Order Bonefires EP via Bandcamp: https://lunatraktors.bandcamp.com/album/bonefires-ep