Wolf People - Ruins

“A.D. 2016 and England is in flux. This bastard island is divided, shot through with doubt and self-loathing, ruled by the feverish egos of passing power hungry-dilettantes, two-bit aristocrats and smiling psychopaths. Swathes of the country have been sold off, paved over, neon-lit. England is at war with itself and this time the enemy is in the mirror.”

Usually such contrived press releases are irritating but in the case of Ruins the effect is engrossing. The blurb is grounded in reality and steers the attention towards a fearsome future. One possible future is explored by Wolf People songwriter Jack Sharp; a future in which humans have disappeared from the planet and nature is in the process of reclamation.

But high falutin’ concepts are secondary to the fact that Wolf People rock.  They rock hard and they rock in an idiosyncratic manner. It's difficult to make a direct comparison with another band because the conceptual lyrics, Sharp’s English folk vocal style, the enormous drum sound and the megalithic guitars haven't been arranged in this combination before, making Wolf People a unique proposition.

The centrepiece of Ruins is the seven-minute ‘Kingfisher’. The song is reprised twice over the course of the twelve tracks of the album, emphasising its significance to the collection. The first reprise has a Reni-style beat accompanying the immediately identifiable ‘Kingfisher’ riff evoking The Stone Roses‘ ‘Don’t Stop’ while the flute and dobro melody of the second has an oriental feel.

‘Crumbling Dais’ has a Fifth Dimension/Summer Of Love vibe via Kula Shaker while ‘Night Witch’ has a Ritchie Blackmore feel to it and is the only song with a conventional chorus; ‘I am night witch/Night witch/Night witch/Night witch’ and ‘Not Me Sir’ also has repetitions of the title. Forays into the vernacular of that type are rare on Ruins and yet there is nothing truly alien across the twelve tracks. They are familiar is structure and tone, Wolf People tap into well-worn tropes without becoming clichéd or predictable.

Wolf Alice. Wolf Parade. Guitar Wolf. Yelawolf. The most unoriginal aspect of Wolf People is their name but you can forgive them that when the music is as entrancing as it is on Ruins. They sound like a very British Wolfmother. The drum sound is heavily influenced by Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham, with the emphasis on the crashing cymbals.

Where Robert Plant fixated on Tolkien, Sharp’s lyrical preoccupations are more historically accurate. Whatever folk influence Wolf People hold on to is barely audible beneath the thunderous barrage of rock guitars. Wolf People gained comparisons with Jethro Tull but aside from Sharp’s vocal style, there is more common ground with Deep Purple and Blue Oyster Cult. One can imagine Wolf People’s audience clad mostly in heavily patched denim.

The storytelling may be folkloric and parochial but the presentation is 100% classic rock, even down to the duelling guitar solos. Their idea of English tales is akin to Ben Wheatley’s A Field In England with an ear for the macabre and unsavoury. Classic rock revivalists are multiplying like bacteria right now but Wolf People stand out from their nostalgic peers. There is an authenticity to the music and personality in the songs that mark them as different. This band aren't exploiting an existing audience; they are creating a new one.

Ruins is available from amazon & iTunes.