The Trials of Cato – Gog Magog

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It is no exaggeration to say The Trials of Cato made waves when they first arrived on the UK folk scene. A brief recap may be helpful, though a lot has happened over the last three or four years that could well have clouded memories. The three original band members began making music together while working as English teachers in Beirut. On returning to the UK in 2016, they began gigging, their fresh, unconventional take on “folk” rapidly getting them noticed. By 2018 they had recorded and released a debut album, Hide and Hair, going on to win Best Album at the 2019 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and play major festivals during the remainder of that year. An impressively steep career trajectory, inevitably then interrupted by the pandemic.

During the interruption, the band went through a significant change. Will Addison left and was replaced by Polly Bolton, previously with The Magpies. Instrumentally, Polly was a direct replacement for Will on Irish Bouzouki, who introduced a different banjo sound with her characteristic clawhammer style and, perhaps most significantly, mandolin, an instrument on which she has built an impressive reputation. Her contribution now combines with Robin Jones on the tenor and 5-string banjos, Irish Bouzouki and percussion and Tomos Williams on guitars, bass, keyboards and percussion. Also, adding a very different voice to the vocals, she takes turns with Robin on the lead and joins Robin and Tomos on backing vocals.

A central talking point from the first album was the sheer variety of styles and influences blended into the band’s music. The altered line-up and productive use of the thinking time provided by lockdowns have ensured that Gog Magog offers a different musical brew, which is equally striking for its wide range of influences and skilful presentation. Its twelve tracks are split into four instrumentals and eight songs, one of which is their arrangement of the familiar, traditional Bedlam Boys. The album sleeve doesn’t list writing credits for individual tracks, the band considering that compositions and arrangements derive from the work of all three members.

The album opens with Paper Planes, immediately showcasing the new voice in the band. The track begins with a riff on tenor banjo that could feasibly be taken for morse code. Soon, Polly’s voice starts posing a series of questions, including the oft-repeated “who knows if you’ve been lonely?” The band say the song is for a friend facing challenging times, and its jaunty pace and the lightness of Polly’s voice could work some cheering magic. Initially, there’s a simplicity to the arrangement; the banjo adopts a more tuneful riff alongside guitar and mandolin while, in the background, a rhythm that could be a simple handclap anchors the pace. The arrangement swells as the song progresses, other voices back up Polly, and at times the sound becomes positively choral with just a little electronic help. It’s an opening statement that immediately captures your attention and whets the appetite for more.

What follows is the first of the instrumentals, the track that gives the album its title, Gog Magog. A name like that needs some explanation, and it would be easy to write pages, as several Wikipedia contributors already have. Extracting the points most relevant to The Trials of Cato, the band have based themselves in Cambridge and to the southeast of the city lie the Gog Magog Hills. Gogmagog is a giant in Welsh and English mythologies, and Robin and Tomos both hail from North Wales; Gog and Magog are also names found in ancient religious texts with links to the eastern Mediterranean and Beirut. Musically, Gog Magog has a simplicity in its choice of instruments, principally two banjos and a bass. While the bass echoes the heavy footfall of a giant, the banjos play out some spritely interactions peppered with hints of Arabic tones and rhythms. One last word on Gog Magog, he dominates the illustration on the album cover, stepping ashore into a town, people scattering in all directions. Only three appear to be standing their ground, and they happen to be carrying guitar, banjo and Bouzouki.

Ignoring the debate as to whether or not the Ring a Ring o’Roses nursery rhyme relates to the Black Death plague, the next song, Ring of Roses, is declared as a modern plague song and is very much a product of its time, the first Covid lockdown. It’s sung by Polly using the lightest of light voices, in places with little more than a breath of air and at times backed by male voices in only a slightly lower register. Accompanied in the main by acoustic guitar, tenor banjo and mandolin but also with products of the trio’s lockdown experimentation with electronica. Most notably, sampling Polly’s voice over the closing instrumental section very effectively emphasises the ethereal nature of the song.

Aberdaron is a further nod to the Welsh side of the trio’s origins. The lyrics are a Welsh poem, a homage to the village of Aberdaron, the traditional setting-off point for pilgrims visiting the monastery on Bardsey Island. The vocal features fine harmony work, initially acapella, later laid over some of the album’s more restrained guitar and mandolin accompaniment. Mandolin and then banjo have their time in the spotlight with the track’s closing instrumental section. Restrained is not how I’d describe the instrumental track that follows. Kerhonkson Stomp gives all the band’s solo instruments a lively outing, it doesn’t have a breakneck pace, but it certainly has swing.

The mood changes dramatically again with the next song When Black Shuck Roams. Taking further inspiration from the areas around their current base, Black Shuck features in folklore throughout East Anglia; though not always telling the same tale, does she bring death or comfort? The song hedges its bets but derives strength by very successfully generating an unsettling atmosphere. Robin takes the lead on the vocals, Polly in the background, while instrumentally, electric guitar and keyboards play their part, encouraging furtive glances over your shoulder.

As on their debut album, they’ve included an arrangement of a traditional song. For Gog Magog, it is Bedlam Boys, a song that, with its tales of madness, matches perfectly with the otherworldly themes of the album. Though several not-so-traditional recordings of the song exist, they single out Steeleye Span’s version as inspiration. Indeed, the Trial’s version begins with a fifteen-second or so sample from the Steeleye track, though, with its pitch shift and distortion, you’d be hard-pushed to recognise it. It’s a great starting point and is matched by Robin’s rapid-paced, edgy vocal delivery of the verses, backed up by Polly on the choruses. The frequent repetition of lines as the pace increases generates a frenzy of a track that leaves a tangible sense of madness.

Back in 2018/19, the buzz surrounding the emergence of The Trials of Cato onto the UK scene and the acclaim that greeted their debut album would always ensure that their follow-up would be both eagerly awaited and have a weight of expectations resting on it. The involuntary delay due to Covid and a personnel change likely eased some aspects of that pressure. It has certainly given them time to fine-tune the package of influences that now infuse their music. The result is an album that is refreshingly different whilst still retaining enough of the original to be recognisably a progression and not a completely new direction. There’s been a maturing of old components; for example, the Arabic influences, while unmissable, are more nuanced. And whilst Polly’s voice is a standout difference, it’s a very welcome one that has broadened and strengthened the trio’s vocals. Add to this the increasing confidence they show when incorporating electronic effects into their music, and we have an album packed with genre-defying music that will surely be greeted with as much enthusiasm and praise as their debut.

The Trials of Cato are currently on tour showcasing the new album.

Pre-Order Gog Magog on CD here: https://www.thetrialsofcato.com/products/gog-magog-cd

Upcoming Live Dates

Nov 22 – Newcastle Upon-Tyne, The Cluny
Dec 02 – Shoreham, Ropetackle Arts Centre
Dec 03 – South Petherton, The David Hall
Dec 09 – Cambridge Junction

Tickets and more details: https://www.thetrialsofcato.com/