{"id":3800,"date":"2022-06-07T21:49:47","date_gmt":"2022-06-07T20:49:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fr-nt.nl\/?p=3800"},"modified":"2022-06-08T11:40:45","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T10:40:45","slug":"broadside-hacks-hoe-de-londense-indiescene-traditionele-folk-springlevend-maakt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fr-nt.nl\/en\/2022\/06\/07\/broadside-hacks-how-londons-indie-scene-is-reviving-traditional-folk\/","title":{"rendered":"Broadside Hacks: how London\u2019s indie scene is reviving traditional folk"},"content":{"rendered":"

The word 'collective' oftentimes is an empty shell, used by musicians who think the word \u2018band\u2019 isn\u2019t interesting enough. But in the case of Broadside Hacks, the word is particularly warranted. In the form of a band, label and concert night, young musicians from London\u2019s indie scene are guided by their interest in traditional folk music. \u201cYou are constantly looking for something that no one else has discovered yet.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written by: <\/strong>Dirk Baart<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It's a summery Saturday evening in Rotterdam, about half past ten. Yet it feels as if the city\u2019s Arminius Church is situated in rainy London. The normally peaceful location of the Motel Mozaique festival seems to have turned into a pub where the bartender has just announced the last call. In front of the stage, people take each other's arms while dancing, making frantic attempts at the river dance<\/em>. The instigator of the whole thing is not a hip DJ or electronic live act, but Broadside Hacks, a collective that has been reviving ancient folk music from the British Isles for a year or two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group is following in the footsteps of the show that caused its creation, band member Campbell Baum explains via video connection. In 2019, in Dublin, he sees how Irish folk singer Junior Brother manages to create the atmosphere of a noisy punk show with only an acoustic guitar and a foot tambourine. When he returns home, Baum, who is also part of post-punk band Sorry, starts organizing folk shows himself. \u201cI had been organizing concerts in London for a while. I'm not from here, so it was my way of meeting people. At first I mainly booked bands like Sorry, Shame and Goat Girl, but I thought it would be interesting to focus more on folk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is how Broadside Hacks sees the light of day as a concert evening. At least that's the idea. Baum invites Junior Brother, Wizz Jones and Jacqui McShee of famed folk band Pentangle, but the concert has to be canceled due to the corona pandemic. Instead of giving up, Baum swiftly turns Broadside Hacks into a label, and asks involved musicians to contribute to Songs Without Authors Vol. 1<\/em>, a compilation of folk songs whose author is unknown. During several lockdowns, the musicians make their own interpretations of songs that have in some cases been passed down by word of mouth for centuries. Katy J Pearson<\/a> conjures up a version of 'Willie of Winsbury' that would have fit neatly on her own album. Naima Bock (Goat Girl) delivers an enchanting interpretation of 'The Game of Cards' and Yorkston\/Thorne\/Khan<\/a> indulge in 'A'Bhean Iadach (The Jealous Woman)'. Lankum\u2019s Daragh Lynch plays on the dark 'The Burning of Auchindoun' and Junior Brother makes an appearance with a compelling version of 'The Lambs on the Green Hills'. \u201cThe latter two are mainly concerned with folk in their own music. Most of the musicians who participated are familiar with that, but it's not necessarily what they usually do. On the compilation, we wondered: what if these songs didn't have the style they've been performed in for years? What would they sound like if they were arranged and performed by people who are not folk musicians? The starting point is not necessarily to turn something old into something modern, but to see what happens if you perform this material without the knowledge or background that normally comes with it. If you do it more instinctively.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n