The Imagined Village - Empire & Love

This is the second offering from this folk supergroup, a sort of Asian-English equivalent of the Afro-Celt Soundsystem, and with an equally stellar line-up. Many of the songs will be well known, such as Rosebud in June, Scarborough Fair and The Lark in the Morning, but seemingly to counteract this, the singers seem to feel obliged to change the tunes round, both rhythmical and melodically, which rather seems to me to miss the point of choosing material with gorgeous melodies. Although this produces some lovely things, some songs, such as Byker Hill become enervated and, when stretched out to nearly 5 minutes, lose the crispness and energy of the original. There is one novelty track (well I presume it is a joke!) when a rather croaky Martin Carthy sings, slowly and to acoustic guitar accompaniment, Slade's Cum on Feel The Noize - "wild, wild wild" it ain't!

The album is beautifully recorded, with songs sitting on a luxurious bed of instrumental textures and electronics, making it difficult to hear the words (which aren't included in the package). Highlights are the almost subliminal electronic marching scrunch on the anti-war My Man John. Hopefully this will attract many "non-folkies", but more traditional people may need to give it a few listenings before they appreciate its charms.
Paul Burgess
Emmerson, Corncrake and Constantine 002