Customer Reviews

Sweet England

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Folk music? That's all finger in the ear and hey nonny nonny stuff isn't it?" said a man I met recently.
How I wish he could hear this album. He'd have a job dismissing folk music in those terms if he did. And an even harder job describing this unique new approach to traditional English music.
Jim Moray, just 21 and a recent graduate of Birmingham Conservatoire, is making mischief in the folk world, turning it on its head and injecting it with colossal new life. He has added the word "techno" to "traditional" and could be the best hope yet of taking folk to a mainstream audience.
He made his mark as a runner up in the UK's Radio 2 Young Folk Musician of Year with a haunting version of "Poverty Knock" and hearing him on the radio some time afterwards was one of those rare moments when you actually stop what you're doing and listen. The only word for it is "arresting".
After his mini CD "I am Jim Moray" comes "Sweet England" a collection of 10 songs, including some of England's best known ballads.
The recording started life in his bedroom, made by equipment largely paid for by a student loan and took on a life of its own. Few traditional folk singers walk on stage with state of the art digital music software ready to process and sample snatches of songs that are then brought back into play to huge effect throughout the number.
Don't ask me how it works - he'd need to explain to you. But those echoing vocal samples are hugely effective, especially when you see him live.
This is an "into the future" slant on songs about love and longing, heroes and villains, squires and maidens and the odd colley bird thrown in for good measure!
His "Gypsies", based on the traditional "Raggle Taggle Gypsies", will send shockwaves through the veins of the purists with its discordant hint of menace but the unaccompanied tenor singing on this and "The Week Before Easter" proves he can sing without the help of high tech trappings, not to mention play guitar and keyboards. His voice is effortless in the opening classic "Early One Morning" while "April Morning" is enhanced by Jackie Oates's beautiful fiddle playing and the title track is simply sublime.
Then there's the echoing soundwash of "Lord Bateman" while the technical wizardry is probably shown to greatest effect in "The Seeds of Love" with its complex sound layering. A self-penned "Looking for Lucy" wraps up the album and shows he has songwriting skills too.
So at one take, Moray has preserved the English musical heritage and taken it to a new technical plain. It's an album that will grow on your with each playing, just as Moray's fame will escalate if there's any justice.
So buy this album but even better catch him live at one of the many folk festivals he is playing this year on both sides of the Atlantic. Whatever you make of his music, you can't ignore it. Moray is an innovator and the haunting nature of this album is even reflected in the bizarre pictures on the CD sleeve. As he says himself: "This is folk music from the point of view of someone that has heard hip-hop and The Smiths and Radiohead and S-Club". He's already played Glastonbury and made teenage girls swoon in Manitoba. What next for Jim Moray?
His album is on the amusingly titled label Niblick is a Giraffe. If Niblick is a giraffe, Jim Moray is a genius...

This the lowdown on Moray: the man is only 21 and has an undying love for old, traditional English folk ballads. So, what does he choose to do? He compiles a number of songs, mostly covered by the most revered traditionalists of that genre, and brings to them the sound and instruments that you would expect a 21 years old to be immersed in. The thing that makes this whole album exceptional is that each song is a marriage of modern and old, without a hint of hibridity, songs brought to life by a different breath and sensibility. Sweet England, "April Morning" or "Longing For Lucy" are prime examples of that. Electronica, in some cases, or an electric guitar, help create modern fairy tales.

"Folk music? That's all finger in the ear and hey nonny nonny stuff isn't it?" said a man I met recently.
How I wish he could hear this album. He'd have a job dismissing folk music in those terms if he did. And an even harder job describing this unique new approach to traditional English music.
Jim Moray, just 21 and a recent graduate of Birmingham Conservatoire, is making mischief in the folk world, turning it on its head and injecting it with colossal new life. He has added the word "techno" to "traditional" and could be the best hope yet of taking folk to a mainstream audience.
He made his mark as a runner up in the UK's Radio 2 Young Folk Musician of Year with a haunting version of "Poverty Knock" and hearing him on the radio some time afterwards was one of those rare moments when you actually stop what you're doing and listen. The only word for it is "arresting".
After his mini CD "I am Jim Moray" comes "Sweet England" a collection of 10 songs, including some of England's best known ballads.
The recording started life in his bedroom, made by equipment largely paid for by a student loan and took on a life of its own. Few traditional folk singers walk on stage with state of the art digital music software ready to process and sample snatches of songs that are then brought back into play to huge effect throughout the number.
Don't ask me how it works - he'd need to explain to you. But those echoing vocal samples are hugely effective, especially when you see him live.
This is an "into the future" slant on songs about love and longing, heroes and villains, squires and maidens and the odd colley bird thrown in for good measure!
His "Gypsies", based on the traditional "Raggle Taggle Gypsies", will send shockwaves through the veins of the purists with its discordant hint of menace but the unaccompanied tenor singing on this and "The Week Before Easter" proves he can sing without the help of high tech trappings, not to mention play guitar and keyboards. His voice is effortless in the opening classic "Early One Morning" while "April Morning" is enhanced by Jackie Oates's beautiful fiddle playing and the title track is simply sublime.
Then there's the echoing soundwash of "Lord Bateman" while the technical wizardry is probably shown to greatest effect in "The Seeds of Love" with its complex sound layering. A self-penned "Looking for Lucy" wraps up the album and shows he has songwriting skills too.
So at one take, Moray has preserved the English musical heritage and taken it to a new technical plain. It's an album that will grow on your with each playing, just as Moray's fame will escalate if there's any justice.
So buy this album but even better catch him live at one of the many folk festivals he is playing this year on both sides of the Atlantic. Whatever you make of his music, you can't ignore it. Moray is an innovator and the haunting nature of this album is even reflected in the bizarre pictures on the CD sleeve. As he says himself: "This is folk music from the point of view of someone that has heard hip-hop and The Smiths and Radiohead and S-Club". He's already played Glastonbury and made teenage girls swoon in Manitoba. What next for Jim Moray?
His album is on the amusingly titled label Niblick is a Giraffe. If Niblick is a giraffe, Jim Moray is a genius...

I had a chance to see Jim perform live at the Winnipeg Folk Festival last year and fell in love with his non-traditional approach to the traditional songs. After hearing "Poverty Knock" I was itching to hear more from him, and after listening to his entire set I had a chance to talk to him, and he's a very intelligent and charming young man. He looks like a young Morrissey, but don't let that fool you! All of the hardware he uses to play back previously recorded bits and modify guitar sounds and vocals looks very complicated to use, but Jim is so familiar with it that it works perfectly to perform flawlessly.

If you're a fan of old-style folk music and would like to hear what it would be like to hear remixes of the old traditional english folk songs, DO NOT hesitate to check out Jim Moray's website to sample his sound.

5-Star Rating: Origionality, beautiful arrangements, well-done vocals, gave me chills.