The Melodic - Effra Parade Album Review
In Rob Young's fascinating encyclopedic book on British folk music 'Electric Eden', the author evocatively describes the music of the classical protagonists - Kate Bush, Nick Drake et al - as "Yearning for an intense communion with nature and the desire to reclaim a stolen innocence". The problem is that, despite a tidal wave of cravat wearing accordion squeezers commandeering a large chunk of popular music real estate in the last few years, very little of it has felt that authentic. Away from the contrived Dexy-isms of Mumford & Sons there are a few carrying the torch - Laura Marling being one - but genuine scions of Martin Carthy are in short supply.
The Melodic - a five piece from South London made up of Huw Williams, Rudi Schmidt, John Naldrett, Lydia Samuels and James McCandless - suffer from a slightly whiffy hipster bio which includes relocation from Brixton to LA and New York, then 6 months touring/busking to follow. They also make a point of the fact that 18 instruments were used in the making of 'Effra Parade', presumably because this has some kind of significance. There isn't a register of what they all are, but, by the sounds of it, there are harmonicas, pianos, accordions, violins and drum brushes in amongst what's described quixotically as a "Baroque line up".
In essence, folk music must exist as an anachronism, but its traditions in the preservation of stories in song and, by extension, language and culture are even more laudable now that history has been re-written by anyone with a computer. 'Effra Parade', to its credit, has something of those pastoral textures, recalling Tuung's Mother's Daughters and Other Stories despite lacking its hedgeway electronica.
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