Reviews
Event: Twisted Folk Festival
Venue: The Arts Depot, Finchley
Town: London
Date: 28th March 2009
Website: http://www.artsdepot.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/folktwisted/
http://www.myspace.com/thelocaluk
After four years the Twisted Folk Festival decided to double its output and go biannual. Nine acts played for almost five hours on three stages in the Arts Depot at Tally Ho! Corner in Finchley.
A last minute change to the schedule, Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo opened the evening in the foyer. Guitarist and harmonica player Barker together with accordion player and flautist Gill Sandell; Cellist Gill Silverston and violinist Anna Jenkins play gentle, lilting alt-country. Barkers lead vocals are complemented primarily by Sandell but Silverston and Jenkins add backing on several tracks- "All Loves Knows" from their new Album "Despite The Snow" shows how all voices combine perfectly. To get the full benefit of Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo you do really need quieter surroundings than the foyer offered as they were always fighting against the stream of people entering the venue.
Also playing the foyer were Babel, a five piece band from Bristol led by the soaring voice of singer/ guitarist Daniel Coughlan with bassist Ben Bird, lead guitarist Rick Brown, violinist Martin Lancster and a drummer tucked off the back of the stage. Songs such as "Apple Crack" are from the hand clapping, foot stomping style of folk; "Cellophane, Jam or The Line" is much jazzier and "Police Car" is a beautiful song that feels like waves lapping on a beach. Coughlan likened the foyer to "playing in John Lewis'" as his eyes looked upwards towards the three stories of open space. The last track was, I think, called "Me and You"; played by Coughlan solo the quiet opening got lost in surrounding as, by this time, the Studio Theatre had opened.
The Ghost Bees start slightly later than planned, on this the last date of their first European tour, but have an early slot and so there's only a small crowd to admire their particular brand of twisted folk. Canadian twin sisters Romy and Sari Lightman perch with mandolin and guitar in front of multicoloured concertinaed butterfly wings with paper chains and feathers draped around them on the stage. The backdrop is a projection of images which complement their music - dreamy floating leaves, flowers and fairies. The Ghost Bees have drawn comparisons with Joanna Newsom and they have that other-worldly quality of sweet, but thin voices and lyrics which sound gentle but are slightly disturbing and talk of foetuses, vampires, wolves, blood and bones. Their harmonies are lovely and they watch each other intensely during the performance. Highlights are 'Sinai', a song about their birth featuring the line "you came tumbling and I was sorry", and another, the title track of their debut album 'Tasseomancy', which is about their great, great grandmother who lived in Russia and read tea leaves.
Reigns, the project of brothers Tim and Roo Farthing, are up next. They are a four piece band - drums, keys, bass and guitar, with the guitarist and keyboard player sharing vocals. The video footage is a useful focus as the band's stage presence is quite understated - a Wessexonian version of Sigur Ros. The vocals and spoken word lyrics are sparse and their set is mostly about creating atmospheric tunes which range from floaty and pretty, to nightmarish in texture, with various added sounds such as trickling water, metronomes, knives being sharpened and digitised voice effects. These all lend themselves to a slightly disturbing undercurrent but weave into shoegazey soundscapes whilst the projection screen takes us on a parallel journey through snow covered bleak valleys, between mountains and trees, and then through urban landscapes and skyscrapers.
The fact that it's a "Twisted Folk" festival means that we can expect something different from the traditional acoustic guitar and voice, and the set-up for the next act, Denis Jones, is distinctly anti-folk - a table cluttered with gadgetry and a spaghetti junction of leads. The bearded techy-looking man himself sits next to the table, without any shoes, legs fidgeting constantly, with cameras projecting his every move from different angles on to the backdrop, even shots up his nose when he lifts the mic to sing. I think it's fair to say the audience didn't know what to expect but he delivers a set that has every person enthralled from start to finish. He uses digital percussion, as well as handclaps and beatboxing, and loops his vocals to create layers of sound. Amongst the looping and effects are a distinctive voice and some excellent songs too. One of the songs includes lines from 'The Clapping Song' - "the monkey chews tobacco on the streetcar line". There's clearly some sharp wit in the lyrics, 'Elvis' stands out and seems to be about a tribute act - "I'm so happy that you're in the ground…. and lucky that I profit from your sound … I'm hanging on the wire but the barbs are in too deep, well I dream I was a hick from Memphis every time that I fall asleep". Throughout his set he tries to make eye contact with every person in the crowd, maybe searching for responses or reassurance, which is quite endearing. I'm not sure how he manages to twiddle with the gadgets on the table, taps away at the looping pedals whilst strumming guitar lines, singing, harmonising and seemingly controlling the cameras too but it was very impressive and we all leave stunned and muttering "brilliant", "amazing"… a welcome dose of futuristic folk.