Album Review: The Memory Band - On The Chalk (Our Navigation Of The Line Of The Downs)
- Written by Kenneth McMurtrie
The Wicker Man & Stonehenge - two things you can bet are in most peoples' top tens of 'things you associate with folk music'. Cliches though have to begin somewhere but, just because this very enjoyable album starts off with a song that brings the aforementioned film to mind and its release was marked by band leader Stephen Cracknell taking a three day walk to the latter stone feature, that doesn't mean this has all been done before.
Take those looped samples on opening track 'The Wearing Of The Horns (Weyhill On My Mind)'. Where did they come from? Some bloke grimly intoning that people are going to burn (undermined only slightly by the phrase "that's what'll happen" bringing Harry Enfield to mind) amidst doomy chords, countryside noises and more conventional female vocals. Weyhill provided inspiration for The Mayor Of Casterbridge. In more recent times the Hampshire village's petrol station had its ATM blown up in a robbery. One, both or neither of these things may have inspired parts of this song but what is certainly clear is that we're dealing with an album that has more in common with such bands as Broadcast and The Focus Group than with either the new or old stereotypical folkies.
'On Dancing Hill' has the whiff of jazz about it, being largely piano-led, albeit with a flute part wafting around in the upper reaches. As part of a soundscape tied to geographical area and the traversing of that this instrumental piece evkoes an image of blue skies and sunshine, birds in the air and the simple enjoyment of taking stock of those things whilst ambling about with no great purpose. Hell, you might even take the weight off your feet by the roadside. Who'd care?
This active recording of the interaction of individuals with landscape for leisure purposes is, in a way, the sonic equivalent of the visual works of the artist Hamish Fulton. It certainly deepens the experience beyond just taking a few snapshots. 'As I Walked Over Salisbury Plain' has a deliciously melancholic note to it along with samples of a chap talking about hunting rabbits, possibly not something it's possible to still do on the military training ground any longer. The following song, 'The Highest Song In The Sky (For Chris Yates)', maintains that same sweet melancholia and reverence for nostalgia but this is not an album that thumps its chest to mourn the simpler things that have been lost to progress. Rather it takes pleasure in what is still there to be enjoyed and what adaptations can be made to keep traditions alive or make it possible to even resurrect some. Cracks are always possible in the concrete placed over the past.
On The Chalk (Our Navigation Of The Downs) is out now and available from amazon