Stick In The Wheel
Album: Bones EP
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 5
Website: http://www.stickinthewheel.com

Back in July 2013 I reviewed Stick In The Wheel's debut recording EP1, praising the threesome's resilient approach and defiantly individual sound and heartily endorsing their integrity and "practise what you preach" credo in resolutely making their own way outside of (and despite) the "accepted" folk and roots scene. Oh, and the music was brilliant too. But crucially, at the same time I felt the trio shot itself in the foot non-musically, just a bit, by a presentation that was IMHO too minimalist and uninformative for its own good; it was a truly indie-spirited desire to stick to basics and cut the cr** that somehow backfired a touch.

But then there was silence, as I waited with bated breath for Nicola Kearey, Ian Carter and Fran Morter to get back in that kitchen and make a full-length CD. Nothing seemed to happen for nigh on a year - until I belatedly learned of the release of Bones, which on enquiry I subsequently discovered to be EP#3. I was mortified to have missed EP#2 (Cuts), which it turns out was released (rather quietly?) in February this year and forms a canny and wholly natural bridge between EPs 1 & 3 in that it contains intense and immediate renditions of three songs taken - or should I say wrenched! - from traditional sources (including a supercharged two-minute dash through Barbara Allen!) plus a suitably convincing take on Ewan MacColl's Champion At Keeping Them Rolling. Happily, Bones brings us more music (clocking in at almost double the playing-time of Cuts), with an official tracklist that bookends two captivating originals (All The Things and Poor Old Man) with a couple of traditional songs (Four Loom Weaver and Bedlam), the remainder of the disc being taken up with the "haunting, ambient railroad graveyard" of uncredited instrumental journey Ends. You might now say that, having reached this stage of their recording career, the trio now possesses a definable Stick In The Wheel sound:, a distinctive, raw delivery and stark, unadulterated climate wherein Nicola's bitingly committed singing tells it like it is (and should be), with Ian's insistent yet sensitively judged resonator guitar as brave lone accompanist (well, for most of the time - Joolie Wood's violin embellishes this texture occasionally) and eerily offset with Fran's rather special vocal harmonies. Intriguingly too, the starkness is often deceptive, for there's also a number of subliminal touches that aren't always quite completely in full earshot and thus tend to reveal themselves but gradually on further plays.

Nicola's extraordinarily powerful, completely involved (and involving) take on Four Loom Weaver really cuts to the bone, and is nothing less than a living embodiment of the band's stated intent to perform folk music as "…a voice linking now to then"; it reaches down the ages and transports the listener right into the soul of the protagonist, a memorable time-travelling experience indeed. Folk purists may cavil at the ballad being rendered in an unashamed East-London accent, but there's more passion and insight in Nicola's candid, honest, from-the-gut portrayal of the plight of this worker - bringing her own voice to this universal situation - than in many a folk-world approximation or reproduction (however well-intentioned) of the original's Lancashire dialect. Bedlam also receives a standout interpretation: cutting, aggressive and punishingly visceral, this is a delirious romp with an implacable forward momentum (driven too by live stomping percussion from Si Foote). Uncompromising and distinguished though both of these trad-arrs be, the disc's two original songs also prove their worth many times over, especially the ominous, measured tread of All The Things whose stature impresses more with each subsequent play. The atmosphere-laden Ends is more than a mere space-filling doodle, and may well point to another mode of fruitful intermittent exploration for the trio. By including this kind of experiment on the disc's menu (albeit unlisted), Bones is surely the most complete artistic statement yet from Stick In The Wheel - and these musicians cover a hell of a lot of ground in barely a quarter of an hour.

As far as presentation is concerned, Bones continues the approved Stick In The Wheel practice of offering appealing, decidedly sparse original artwork, which here reflects the searing, dark beauty of the music encapsulated within by depicting "deer jawbones, single human vertebra and old clay pipes rescued from the Thames". Artistic unity notwithstanding, however, I'm getting increasingly impatient to hear a proper full-lengther from Stick In The Wheel. OK, with many acts the releasing of output in dribs and drabs is actually a deliberate, crafty marketing ploy to keep their name in permanent profile - but although I don't suspect Stick In The Wheel of being guilty of this practice, Bones is arguably the band's most tantalising release to date. And yet, it's also undeniably a must-have. It's tremendously compulsive; so, in other words, it can't help but stick in the wheel of the CD player!

David Kidman