Various Artists – The Food of Love Project: Songs from Shakespeare’s Plays & Times (Autolycus Records)



Invigorating collection of folk treatments of songs either featured or referenced in the plays of William Shakespeare, an album put together to mark the Shakespeare Jubilee in 2016.

The variety of shades over the course of the set is impressive; the ominous vocal drone of Dead Rat Orchestra singing ‘Bonnie Sweet Robin is to the greenwood gone’; the plaintiff vocal canons of Stornoway on ‘Eibhlín a riún’; the wonderful courtly atmosphere of ‘Caleno custure me’ as arranged by Alasdair Roberts & Gordon Ferries; Thomas Truax putting ‘Greensleeves’ through his particular surrealist vision, all chiming music boxes, whirrs and scratches; the primal drone and irrepressible vocal lilt of Kirsty Law.

Sweet sweet music for Shakespeare fans and everyone else too.







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Best of 2014 - Part 4: Jazz/Chamber/Orchestral/Wonky/Ambient/Minimalist

And so the final part of this journey back through 2014. I've titled this bunch in favour of the Orchestral/Jazz end of the pop spectrum but there are certainly a few refugees from Dream Pop, Folk, maybe even Soul (and one showtune). Who's counting though. There are also a good number of Electronic pieces in here as promised, but more of minimalist, downtempo and/or industrial leanings. Mood wise, I think this set hangs together pretty well. Whatever, there's a lot of great music in here for sure. Just as a reminder, here are the other three parts of my 2014 Review. http://www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.ie/2014/12/best-of-2014-part-1-folkrootscountry.html http://www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.ie/2014/12/best-of-2014-part-2-soulpopjangleelectr.html http://www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.ie/2015/01/best-of-2014-part-3-psychkrautrockpunkb.html 1. Polar Bear – Two storms (Leaf) A wonderfully spacious late night saxophone ele
Read more

Best of 2014 - Part 3: Psych/Krautrock/Punk/Blues/Glam/Tropical

Another hodge podge of generally loud fast music often featuring loud guitars and sometimes even loud keyboards. There are also some hushed varieties (to make up for the lack of volume those have a spooky air) and at least a few with no guitars at all. That's the beauty of pop music and 2014 was another vintage year. 1. Ezra Furman – My zero (Bar None) Let’s start with an album not technically released last year (towards the end of 2013), but it sank home with me in the early weeks of last January. The day of the dog is a bracing blast of beat rock n roll from an age before The Beatles, never mind the internet...committed, passionate and filled with buzzing guitar hooks and, inspiringly, saxophones. This song was my anthem from it. It’s a class tune all over. Shades of The Modern Lovers and even Violent Femmes here and there but Furman's voice in particular is all his own - brilliantly strained, reaching. There's not enough of that in pop music. The who
Read more

Matthew Bourne - Montauk Variations (The Leaf Label)

Image
I'm no jazz afficionado. I probably know as much about jazz as the average pop music fan. Which is why I'd previously only been aware of the pianist Matthew Bourne at arm's length, through references in regular mailings from the Leaf record label. Now, Leaf are releasing what is apparently his first ever solo studio album, and his first outing with the label. From what I read about Bourne, it sounds like he doesn't wear the jazz tag easily; he's been a serial collaborator over the last decade - piano trios, free jazz/noise groups and even a project seeking out broken pianos, Songs from a lost piano (which sounds intriguing and I must check it out this minute). I've no intention of attempting anything like a review of this album. I'm not qualified and I hate it when people wander into territory where they're clearly out of their depth. However, there is an obvious "way in" for me here - a version of the Charlie Chaplin tune Smile , which ori
Read more