The Awkward Recruit
At theSprout we have a monthly Youth Editorial Meeting and one of the many perks is when the CDs get handed out for review. This month I was the one doing the dishing out which also meant that if anything wasn’t snapped up, it was mine. The moment I held aloft Mawkin:Causley’s The Awkward Recruit and said it was a folk album, I knew I had made an error.
Folk is very much a four letter word.
With no-takers, I reluctantly stuffed it in my bag but resolved to open my mind once again despite reviewing Lau’s interminable Arc Light last month for theSprout.
Mawkin:Causley are apparently causing a bit of a stir in the folk world at the moment and I can kind of see why. The Devon four piece have a certain spark about them, a willingness to expand the staid palette of sounds inherent to a lot of folk music and amenable to a variety of rhythms.
Although when Jolly Broom Man kicked in I half expected Brett and Jermaine from Flight Of The Conchords to make an appearance (By the by series 2 starts Tuesday May 12th at 10.30pm BBC4).
Saying that there is humour running through the album and indeed the liner notes which, alongside the Latino-tinged feel of some of the tracks, should hopefully help this album find a wider audience outside of the folk faction.
Folk me.
The Awkward Recruit is out now on Navigator Records.
