| Product: |
Close Up - Fold |
| Date: |
19/08/06 (116 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: fantastic folk centred music, original and fresh
Disadvantages: the band are not as big as they should be
The Fold are a band that have been around since 1994 as a live act but I doubt many of you are aware of their work. In a way they highlight the crime of the music industry, a crime that promotes half-baked fashion bands on the strength of image rather than ability. To be highly regarded by their contemporaries and fans should be enough, but the fact that the rhythm section of this band also moonlight in a tribute band to Jethro Tull, some of the most intricate music of the modern age outside classical composition, gives you an idea of the benchmark that this band works from. The major crime being committed here is that whilst lesser musicians bathe in the glory of the rock and roll lifestyle these musicians go back to their day jobs when all the fun is over, the great rock and roll swindle if ever there was one, or is that rock and folk swindle? It would be easy to describe the band as a straightforward folk rock band, but that would be doing them as a disservice to them, a lazy cop out on the part of the reviewer, as there is much more to the music than such a tag would conjure. Mention the word folk and images of Arran sweaters, pipes and beards spring to mind, singing with one finger in the ear of medieval summer meadows, and the men aren’t much better. Well if that is the image that folk music brings to mind to you then maybe this band is a lesson that you need to take to bring yourself up to speed on the current folk scene.
Opening on a solo violin, an instrument which will play a large part in the music to follow, there seems nothing new to break the stereotypical image here, that is until the rest of the band pile into “Tumbling Down” the pace quickens the violin ups a gear to provide a sweet and memorable hook for the song and we are off, surfing a wave of dance inspired folk rhythms. Dance is the word here, although a term hi-jacked and now come to be associated with manufactured electronic studio music, this is dance music in the truest sense of the word, music that connects with the heart and the foot and defies you to keep still through out. Whether you experience this live or on the CD it’s a challenge that is hard to resist. “Head” charges off with the same drive and is a much more difficult beast to put a genre too. An eclectic mix of new age experimentalism, folk sensibility and driven back beats and drum shuffles this, almost instrumental, offering is a measure of not only the bands musicianship but also of their writing ability and scope. Calming things down a bit comes “Party That Never Ends” and we are on safe but no less brilliant territory. A smooth acoustic guitar and vocal track augmented by haunting backing vocals from Joanna Shiel and a slow build in dynamics from accompanying Cello and eventually violin. It’s a song that shows that there is no need to break new territory when you can revisit traditional formats and breath new life into them, the result a wonderfully calming and laid back tapestry wonderfully and economically woven.
The opening beats of “Sleepwalk” immediately scream “Hard to Handle” the Otis Redding classic made famous again by the Black Crowes, but just when the signature bassline should come in, we are offered up a different though no less memorable one. Driven from the rhythm section this song replaces vocals for Linda Games spiralling violin which duets with Jon Woods guitar which alternates between punch lead breaks and understated less is more picking. There’s even room for those trademark backing vocals and the whole blends into a beautiful mix of consummate musicianship and thoughtful melody. Folk music shouldn’t be this clever should it? As the dulcet tones fade away we are back into the driven folk style again with “Katy Make Sure”, front man Steve Holland shares vocal duties here and the glorious wandering violin leads are tied nicely to the backbeats by Steve Harrison’s tight bass emphasis which as ever holds roots everything to the spot. And all that from a man who describes himself as “A died-in-the-wool, beer-swilling, bearded folky.” Twin vocals are a feature again on “Dizzy Again” a busy little number full of verve and pace and a nice middle eight that breaks down the dynamic of the song so that it can build again and drive to its logical conclusion in fine style. There are some fine drum fills from Tom Andrews a drummer that seems to be able to turn a song around at the drop of his ever-present hat.
A change is in the air again with “Wishing Tree”, from a slow guitar build a wonderfully original composition grows. For all the abilities in the band, they know how to hold back and just play the basic groove, adding only when the song requires it and having the skill and experience to know when to build the song. A song rooted very much on the bassline, for all its simple nature it is also a song, like most found on this CD that throws up an infectious dance beat, but none of that in your face clinical electro-dross here, this is a beat that screams of dancing around campfires, of summer evenings and countryside. Maybe I think too much and maybe I am and aging hippy at heart but that’s where my mind goes to this sort of music and I’m just trying to explain what dance music can mean to those with a broad enough mind to accept that its not all about 120bpm Ibiza anthems. “Reach For Heaven” is a song that is firmly in the territory that the Levellers, the combination of violin and acoustic guitar sounds like it could have come from the aforementioned return to their roots album “Green Blade Rising”. Incidentally the Fold recently played a support set for The Levellers and were very well received not only by the bands fans but also particularly by the band themselves.
“Feeling the Same” starts off in the same mellow fashion as the last song but after a minute of smooth silky licks kicks off into a more driven direction. Again the back beat and a repetitive guitar riff creates the foundation for the violin and vocals to work their magic. The album is rounded off by the only song that sounds like a traditional folk tune. Sung both in English and French, “Toujours Avec Toi” is a where Joanna Shiel gets all the vocal glory over some straightforward guitar work, augmented only by a distant tenor sax, not what you would normally expect in a song of this type and some incidental guitar lead. And where the song kicked in, in gloriously up beat fashion, it fades out in ethereal splendour, the journey is over and a lesson in contemporary folk has been completed. As I said on the way in, there is a lot more going on here that the tag folk music suggests and it’s a CD which will appeal to purists and more general listeners alike, in fact anyone that appreciates very original and evolved music will find this very much to their tastes.
Although, unfortunately, this is not the sort of thing that you can pick up in the shops they do have an online shop facility at their site at: http://www.thefold.co.uk/index.php?thissection=1 and there you can also find out where the band are gigging, something that is well worth catching. If folk music seems an alien and somewhat whimsical music genre then this is the CD to make you re-evaluate things that you may have otherwise taken for granted.
Summary: original folk music, with a dash of rock and dance sensibilities
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