Perspectives on Tradition

Don’t let the title fool you – this collaborative release of covers from UK future-folk duo Stick in the Wheel is anything but traditional. The concept behind the project was simple: SITW invited contemporary musicians to listen through the Cecil Sharp House archive, from which they fractured, extracted and adapted some of the world’s most timeless folk songs. And the result is not one for the purists.

The album opens with ‘The Milkmaid’ in which multi-instrumentalist Nabihah Iqbal spins strings of improvised piano and Nicola Kearey’s spare vocals into a coarse and lilting lullaby. Then it all kicks off. Turntablist Jon1st takes ‘The Ballad of Black Annis’ and ‘Let No Man Steal Your Thyme’ into hyperpop and jungle territory, with anachronistic AutoTune and hectic breakbeats. Olugbenga Adelekan of indie-electro outfit Metronomy uses the folk tales of Kenya and Nigeria as a base for euphoric synths and spoken word in ‘Devil in the Well / Bright-eyed Boy’, and Iqbal pulls out a haunting-ballad-turned-degenerative-club-thumper on ‘Farewell He’. Highlighting the transformative power modern song-making can have on even the most well-known traditional numbers, this record is an unflinching reminder that folk music has always thrived on interpretation and reinvention.