Blast From The Past
Album: The Men Who Marched Away
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.blastfromthepast.org.uk

Blast From The Past is the performing handle of Coventry-based Chris Green and Sophie Matthews (formerly of that fine band Isambarde). It's a fortuitous teaming that cements the niche they've built for themselves as self-styled "historical musicians" who travel the country over, enthusiastically presenting their own special brand of musical entertainment, often in period costume (and, in the case of their Medieval Christmas and Brief History Of Music shows, with period instruments too).

Their seemingly inexhaustible energy enables them to tour as many as three productions concurrently - and this season finds them encompassing both Medieval and Victorian Christmas shows alongside the Smile! Smile! Smile!: Songs Of The Great War extravaganza, which delivers a number of songs which were popular in that era (music-hall, sentimental/parlour and soldier-songs), in tandem with a handful of Chris's own compositions on the theme, supplemented by (mainly his own) arrangements of poetry of the day (by Harold Begbie, May Wedderburn Canaan and Cicely Fox Smith - the latter embracing, of course, Sarah Morgan's well-loved setting of Home Lad, Home), and some covers.

This disc, carefully subtitled The Men Who Marched Away, focuses on the above-mentioned categories to provide a lasting memento of the show that's satisfying for home listening, largely leaving aside the more disposable popular material that's well represented elsewhere in the annals of recording. Bill Caddick's epic opus The Writing Of Tipperary and George Butterworth's poignant Housman setting The Lads In Their Hundreds provide two of this disc's emotional highpoints, while The Old Battalion (a variant of Hanging On The Old Barbed Wire) is sensitively handled, as is Home Lad, Home.

Chris's ancestral portrait of Private Green also proves a fine inclusion for this disc. The flipside of the emotional coin is well conveyed in Chris and Sophie's jaunty performance of the cheeky recruiting song from the music-hall I'll Make A Man Of You (popularised by Vesta Tilley).

Overall, the style and idiom of the performances might best be described as directly appealing, honestly managed, musically speaking light-textured, fairly gentle folk-rock I guess, invariably well considered and audience-friendly with versatile and committed musicianship albeit not pushing any boundaries and occasionally a touch understated (in purely expressive terms, at any rate) though a satisfying experience for any receptive listener.

Chris and Sophie's own vocal and instrumental prowess is cannily augmented by selective contributions from Paul James (from Blowzabella) and Richard Heacock (from Boldwood), and altogether this disc is a thoroughly pleasing - and at times welcomely thought-provoking - memento of the stage show. It also forms a timely, and affectionate, tribute to all those caught up in the so-called Great War, and can well justify its place among the various commemorative projects and associated CD releases which have been vying for our attention and filling the racks over the past few months.

David Kidman