Willkommen Collective Offers Up Volume One
The Willkommen Collective likes folk music—do you?
Willkommen Collective
Willkommen Collective, Vol. 1
Released on Oct 27, 2009
The Willkommen Collective is an organization of independent folk musicians, artists, and promoters in Brighton, England who all have their hands in each other’s pots. The bands in the collective tend to share members and collaborate as they please to expand their sound, though it is all definitively folk.
The album begins strong with its first
several tracks, opening on Moonshine Moonshine’s “Violet.” With
lead singer Beatrice Sanjust’s basic, high-pitched words and circular
instrumentals void of percussion, the track a definite throwback to
‘60s and ‘70s folk—or at least an indication that someone’s
been listening to an awful lot of Vashti Bunyan lately. Next comes “In
the Morning” by the Laish Quartet, which starts out charmingly enough
with a slight hint at Robyn Hitchcock, but the track becomes a little
repetitive after the midpoint and could lose a few chorus repeats despite
its pretty instrumentation. Continuing on, the 12-piece band, Sons of
Noel & Adrian, offers a dark, shaky folk tale called “30 Boys
With Bats” that is ridden with rigidly strummed acoustics. This is
followed by The Shoreline’s instrumental music box–like track, “Jubeltane.”
Then, Kristin McClement offers one of the best songs of the collection
with “Planks,” a heavy tune that highlights her husky voice.
The album starts to fall flat by “Search for the Underwater Town” by Hamilton Yarns. Muted brass gives the song a different vibe, but the boingy finger-plucking and ratchet sounds, or “things are breaking in the background of this song” noises, just get irritating. The Miserable Rich’s “The Knife Thrower’s Hands” is a little too singer-songwriter and doesn’t exactly mesh with the vibe of the album. Atlas Crease channels a medieval folk song on “Four Corners,” but in a way that’s just sort of creepy, with whistling, handclaps, and jingle bells that culminate in a menacing orchestra that threatens your life.
The end of the album loses the traditional
sense that the first part maintained, infusing more contemporary indie
music into the mix and a tip of the folk hat to bands like Animal Collective
and Anathallo on offerings from Kopek, Rowan Coupland, and The Leisure
Society. Ending on an enjoyable track by The Climbers, “Bookshop Folk,”
the Willkommen Collective invites some electricity in, even though The
Climbers are relying a bit too heavily on their ‘90s rock influences.
Oh, sorry. Actually, the album ends on “Mysterious Bonus Track”
by Mysterious Bonus Artist, which appears to be a bunch of musicians
from the collective singing a sea shanty or something of that nature.
When working with so many different artists, it has to be difficult to tie together a compilation and still make it sound whole, but it’s obvious that Willkommen Collective, Vol. 1 was put together very precisely by theme and mood. That being said, much of the material is adorned with lazily swelling violins, spacey, hushed vocals, the occasional harp in the background, and some random xylophones. A tendency to rely on the same formula can make the album drag, but overall this collection is destined to be dearly adored by die-hard fans of the Once soundtrack.
High Point
Kristin McClement manages to create a haunting, PJ Harvey effect on “Planks” without actually trying to sound like PJ Harvey.
Low Point
Hamilton Yarns’ “Search For the Underwater Town” is clearly the album buffer between heavier folk and contemporary, but sounds more like a collection of video game sound effects.
Posted by Leah Urbom on Oct 29, 2009 @ 6:00 am
