The Victorians

The fourth studio album from the Manchester trio has been three years in the making. It is produced by Darren Jones – more associated with mainstream pop acts than folk – and the striking thing about Harp & a Monkey is their creativity in the midst of tradition. Their take on the standard ‘Early One Morning’ is the most iconoclastic since Jim Moray's version on Sweet England.

The inventive soundscape includes water sloshing against the dockside on the opener and the creak of a ship on the transportation ballad ‘The Returned Convict’. There's a light, pulsing foundation to their sound that nods to dance music, while their treatments have a contemporary urgency and hypnotic loops of phrasing. All this might sound very experimental, and yet they are the most assiduous explorers of the traditional folk canon.

Rooted in industrial Manchester, they have taken ballads from throughout the 19th century that reveal the popular life of the streets. Harp & a Monkey manage that very rare thing – something even the best documentaries often fail at – they take you into another era and bring its authentic voices and sounds alive in a way that a modern ear can understand.