The Memory
Band - On The Chalk (Our Navigation of the Line of the Downs)
(Static Caravan)
The Memory Band is folk collective led by Stephen
Cracknell, which, since 2004, has included a myriad of musicians from a wide spectrum,
including Al Doyle, Adem, Liam Bailey, Jenny McCormick, Jess Roberts and
members of Simian, Black Ghosts, The Accidental, Lamb and Rocketnumbernine.
This fourth album, as its title makes apparent, is a
musical travelogue tracing the historical path of England’s oldest road.
The Harrow Way (known as the Harroway, the Hoary Way or Heargway - the road to
the shrine) is the western part of the lost, Old Way, the section that rises to
Stonehenge before descending into the West Country.
Opening track “The Wearing of the Horns” reveals that
the intention is modern folk music, with a montage of sounds and spoken word
samples joined by funereal drum and a more traditional vocal. The tunes
project the sense of natural beauty encountered as the journey along the road
reveals itself, and conjure the spirit of place, but with a yearning sense of
loss.
It’s the spoken word samples that provide a large
chunk of the narrative, from “that’s what’ll happen to all you people that
haven’t accepted Jesus Christ” / “you’ll burn” contained in “The Wearing of the
Horns” through “…from then on it all changed” heard in “What Blood Is
This”, and the many snippets of tales of past pleasures and practices add heaps
of nostalgia.
Although indebted to modern technology use of samples
and digital drones) the subject matter and overall tone (and as memory can only
recall the past) is one that side steps the twenty-first century. Being a band
that tours performing Paul Giovanni's soundtrack to The Wickerman, it’s no
surprise that there’s a certain pagan influence running through the record.
“On The Chalk” is a thoughtful distillation of
reflections on the distant past and alludes to where we as are now. It
accepts that change is inevitable yet opens debate about whether we are in a
better place.
Willsk
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