Various – Ballads Of Seduction, Fertility And Ritual Slaughter (Album Review)

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Ballads of Seduction, Fertility and Ritual Slaughter is a wonderfully consistent, decidedly spooky reimagining of The Wicker Man, one of the most revered Folk Horror soundtracks of all time.

It is fitting that, on the 50th year of one of the most revered Folk Horror films of all time, the soundtrack to The Wicker Man is reimagined by seventeen artists, selected by the endlessly fascinating Was Ist Das? record label. The results, which took 18 months to put together, and is in support of the Scottish Wildlife Trust, are something all the more sinister, darker and altogether stranger than even the original.

Like the current growth in fascination with all things Wyrd and Psych, this remarkable collection eerily reflects the need for a different way of looking at the world. Author Ned Netherwood has gathered friends to re-work, cover and totally re-interpret one of the greatest soundtracks that there has ever been and, indeed, some of the music that almost single-handedly re-ignited a passion for Psych-Folk.

If Trunk’s re-issue in 1998 lit the fuse, it is the slightly more complete 2002 Silva Screen version of the soundtrack that Netherwood uses for inspiration. Instrumental themes are placed next to one another, and ideas cohere rather than fragment.

Ballads of Seduction, Fertility and Ritual Slaughter, largely speaking, follows the soundtrack pretty faithfully in terms of a track listing. To that end, The Highland Widow’s Lament starts things off. Where the original is just a scene-setting snippet, innovative folk duo Burd Ellen have created a multi-layered, multi-faceted, eight-minute piece of gentle, nagging intensity. Scottish voices circle and swoop, overlapping until the tension is palpable, the suffocating atmosphere almost unbearable. The sweetness of the voices becomes delightfully sinister.

Sinister is the word for the whole of this reimagined world. Andrew Liles is well used to sinister, thanks to his work with Nurse With Wound and Current 93, and his The Landlord’s Daughter drips with a raucous unpleasantness. Distorted, ghostly voices are swept up into an unhinged, unstable carnivalesque chorus. If there was any hint that the original version is just a bit of pub cheekiness, this version is full of threat and drunken lasciviousness. All of the flies from hell seem to buzz about as the song reaches its end. Contrast this, however, with Gently Johnny by The Good Shepherd featuring the exquisite voice of Maydo Kay. The gentle violin and beautiful voice add to the creeping sense of unease deftly created so early on.

Three of the most recognisable songs from the soundtrack are the three that stand out as the most notable here. Not that this incredible collection is really about highlights; it’s far more about the sum of the parts. Magpahi is better known as Alison Cooper, formerly of Twisted Nerve act Sam and The Plants, and her May Pole starts with an electronic burble, a whistle and then tumbles into a trembling version of the old, old folk song also known as The Rambling Bog or The Rattlin’ Bog. She builds her own synthesisers, and her sounds are organic and warm, like loamy earth on a summer afternoon. Equally organic is Procession/Chop Chop by United Bible Studies. Procession is an ultra-slow reimagining of Willie O Winsbury; it’s brass-ladened and intensely spooky, xylophone and brass calling and responding, creating a nightmarish facsimile of bird call. Chop Chop is ushered in on the familiar Oranges and Lemons refrain and vibrates, buzzes on a peculiarly Eastern frequency. UBS are a constantly shifting collective, and here feature David Cohan (Raising Holy Sparks), Dominic Cooper (The Straw Bear Band) and Grey Malkin (The Hare & The Moon); this is Folk Horror par excellence.

Willow Song has been covered by many, most recently by Katy J Pearson and is probably, the most recognisable song on the soundtrack. Meg Baird becomes the latest to lend her voice to the delightfully delicate piece of mysticism, and it is, simply, goosebump-inducing. Her voice has the requisite moon-scraping heights, but it is coupled with control, at odds with Britt Ekland’s wild cavorting. This juxtaposition between delicacy and power makes Baird’s version one of the finest; it ripples in an otherworldly haze.

If Baird’s version of Willow Song is a pretty straightforward, if gorgeous, cover, then Hawthonn‘s Lullaby is a radical evolution. Terrifying screams put teeth on edge; there’s something of Coil’s occultism and the darker edges of Dead Can Dance that unsettle. Anyone hoping to be lulled to sleep by this lullaby will be sadly disappointed. On Festival/Mirie It Is, Teleplastmiste allows analogue synths and drones to circle overhead, slowly picking up the intensity until bagpipes come through the mist. It is layered and odd, transportive and transcendental. There are, once again, the fingerprints of Coil and Current 93 all over it, adding malevolence.

On an album where the darkest of Summerisle’s shadows are explored, Micheal Begg‘s Appointment With the Wicker Man seems to sum it up most effectively. Begg is a Scottish composer/producer and member of Fovea Hex; he’s taken the original fanfare/dialogue/sound effects piece and fashioned the essence of the isolated island itself. Cricks and creaks, washes of the ocean on the shore and field recordings of bird call all add to the hovering, impending sense that those shadows are coming to get you.

Ballads of Seduction, Fertility And Ritual Slaughter is a wonderfully consistent, decidedly spooky reimagining of a brilliant soundtrack. It is full of odd delights and is, almost certainly, best listened to sitting down. Shocks are, after all, so much better absorbed with knees bent.

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Ballads Of Seduction, Fertility And Ritual Slaughter Tracklisting

1. Burd Ellen – The Highland Widow’s Lament
2. Alvarius B – Corn Rigs
3. Andrew Liles – The Landlord’s Daughter
4. Good Shepherd feat. Maydo Kay – Gently Johnny
5. Magpahi – May Pole
6. Sophie Cooper – Fire Leap
7. The Owl Service & Harriet Bradshaw – The Tinker of Rye
8. United Bible Studies – Procession/Chop Chop
9. Meg Baird – Willow’s Song
10. Hawthonn – Lullaby
11. Teleplasmiste – Festival/Mirie It Is
12. Sharron Kraus – Sing Cuckoo (Summer Is A-Coming In)
13. David Colohan – Loving Couples/The Ruined Church
14. Burial Hex – The Masks/Hobby Horse
15. The Banshees of Bunworth – Searching For Rowan
16. Michael Begg – Appointment with the Wicker Man
17. Dean McPhee – Sunset