Blowzabella
Tilham
Self Released
Out Now
Blowzabella, everybody’s favourite high-energy dance band, celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2018 with a new album (Two Score) and a big bash. But in truth, each fresh album release from this highly-respected team is a cause for celebration, and their 14th – Tilham – is a further stylish instance of their legendary status and staying power, fully playing to their considerable strengths.
In every sense, they’ve come a long way since their formation back in 1978 when, taking their name from a late-17th-century English jig, they stormed onto the folk scene with a uniquely invigorating mix of folk tunes from all around Britain and Europe, quickly progressing over the ensuing decade to composing their own tunes in the style of popular traditional dances. And apart from a decade’s hiatus in the 90s, there has been a Blowzabella band ever since, amassing an inexhaustible corpus of increasingly self-penned material, many tunes from which have over the years become standards of the modern-day folk repertoire on which they have proved vastly influential.
For a period of over 15 years (2005-20), the band lineup remained stable with the winning team of Andy Cutting, Jo Freya, Paul James, Gregory Jolivet, Dave Shepherd, Barnaby Stradling and Jon Swayne; then, in August 2020, hurdy-gurdy player Gregory took the entirely understandable decision to leave the band “because of the mounting problems posed by Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic”. The remaining six members have since come together to produce this brand new offering – named Tilham after the Somerset farm close to Jon’s home in whose outbuildings they were permitted to record over two mammoth (and audibly enjoyable) sessions. And a wonderful sound they all make. Here in all its glory, is the trademark resplendent Blowzabella tapestry of sound, through which is creatively woven a complex of contrasted yet complementary timbres. Often it’s exceedingly rich, but it never feels in any sense overloaded – therein lies the abundantly skilled alchemy practised by this group of musicians. They possess an extremely well-developed ear for texture and are keenly attuned to the potential for blending and combining each other’s individual instruments (remember, they play an impressive number altogether between them – 25 in total, if I’ve counted correctly!). They’re also well aware of the possibilities of rhythm and syncopation, and impeccable, intuitive musicianship is the order of the day.
On Tilham, the balance of material follows the now-customary pattern – a well-sequenced programme of instrumental tracks (tunes, mostly in pairs format) in amongst which are nestled three memorable excursions into song. On this occasion, the tune quotient includes just two traditional items – The Cumberland Militia, from the late-18th-century tune book of Joseph Barnes, is a version of a morris tune, whereas the disc’s lusty final item, The Corsican Fairy, comes from a Lake District source (the Browne Family tune collection). All other tunes you’ll hear have been composed by band members. Jo also contributes the wonderfully evocative song Swirling Flame, the melody for which arose out of a piece written for a themed summer school at Somerset’s Halsway Manor. Jo takes the vocal lead on both this and the rather addictive Breton song Les Trois Jolis Mineurs(which is capped off neatly by Paul’s 6/8 rondeau Umberella). The third song is Paul’s fond interpretation of The Green Bushes, whose unusual instrumental setting features two whistle parts.
The album’s opening track forms an ideal introduction to the time-honoured Blowzabella sound – a truly glorious noise, with those familiar drone-rich layers of bagpipes and accordion supporting front-line fiddle and soprano sax and Barn’s fabulous, driven and characteristically inventive solid-state bass placed well to the forefront in the mix (as it should be!). This opener pairs a sparky fiddle tune written by Dave in memory of a friend (whose violin he plays here) with a persistent earworm of a schottische penned by Jon in homage to Gregory. The second track presents a brace of waltzes by Jon which soon accelerate from sensuous and reedy momentum to a sprightly carpet of bagpipe drones first supporting and then mirroring the bell-like accordion figures. And so the album progresses, with several tracks fairly insisting on immediate repeat play. I especially enjoyed track 4 – the cleverly “confitured” (sic) Scratch Arse Jam/Fabius medley; track 5, Jo’s sax-soaked Pyreneean perambulation Neylis; and track 10, a veritable interlocking of three bourées, cannily titled Yorkshire Jesus, with its delicious minor key interposition and scrambling frenetic bass runs.
Felicitous conjunctions abound in this cleverly connected cornucopia of boisterous bourées, jaunty jigs and piquant processionals. Exhilarating right through to the very last downbeat, Tilham proves a brilliantly fiery and tremendously satisfying set that embodies par excellence, the “inimitable, driving, drone-based wall-of-sound“ that will forever be associated with the Blowzabella name.