The Legendary Ten Seconds
Album: Loyaulté Me Lie
Label: Pastimes
Tracks: 14
Website: http://www.freewebs.com/thelegendarytenseconds/

There are of course many inspirations in the folk world, often stemming from historical events that occurred at the time. Folk music has often been seen as a way of telling history and stories in a way that will help the information be kept alive and past on.

It is only fitting that actually some folk artists will base all of their music around certain historical events and for The Legendary 10 Seconds, this would be the medieval era around Richard III and the War of Roses.

The album 'Loyaulté Me Lie' chronicles certain events from this time into catchy song form right up until the fairly recent discovery of the grave of Richard III in Leicester.

The music is very much lyric based with backing instruments consisting of electric guitar, percussion and multi skills on the keyboard. Each track from the very first 'York City Fayre' to 'The King in The Car Park' is a piece of history put into a detailed song form and this seems to the primary goal of the music.

The vocals of Ian Churchward and the entire guest backing vocals are the perfect platform for this goal as they are clear, concise and meet you with a sense of power and authority on the subject. Interestingly most of the vocal tracks have a similar sound, but there are a few instrumental tunes that are a different style. The 'Fanfare For The King' for example uses the traditional fanfare style with some modern adaptations. Similarly 'Tudor Danse' is the kind of music you hear when looking at modern adaptations of historical scenes, whether this be for atmosphere or cliché.

These short intermission tracks are really helpful to the overall feel of the album as they have that typical historical feel about them and make the entire album feel almost like a film soundtrack from some sort of modern film adaptation.

Some may look at the album tracklist and worry that there is a strong historical vibe that excluded people who do not know their history, but really the album can be enjoyed no matter what your level of historical knowledge and understanding the events being described in the songs is not necessary for enjoying the music itself.

Paul Rawcliffe