They’ll be back for a more extensive run of UK dates in November. Harrow Fair have a most distinctive sound, and it’ll be interesting to see how that translates into the live gig setting when they tour the UK. Finally, in amongst the original songs, there’s a doomy little instrumental piece ( The Hunt), while Harrow Fair Pig Auction turns out to be precisely that – one and a half minutes of high-speed auctioneering that sounds authentically recorded at the very location that gives the duo their name.
The duo’s writing is also entirely in tune with the country roots tradition, as their ingenious lyrical adaptation of Hank Williams’ Told My Heart A Lie proves. And closing track Been There Ways feels like a stylistic halfway house with a kind of mantra pulse that as much as anything else recalls early Velvets.īut whether gentle and plaintive or upfront and thrusting, the duo’s vocals have a feeling of being right there on the emotional edge, where the outcome could easily go either way (or else break down completely) – and that quality sure is tremendously exciting. The ultra-atmospheric How Cold, just past the mid-point of the disc, is quite literally chilling, with a keening, lilting melody line whose beauty fair grips the soul and mind. The other side of that coin, so to speak, is the sweet, tender, almost mournful balladry of tracks such as Held Tight and Emmaline, masterpieces of delicacy and haunting gorgeousness which demonstrate how peerless and symbiotic is the duo’s rapport and how skilled is their acute blending of voices and textures. Heck, the grinding violin-driven riffery of Bite Your Way even put me in mind of the early ’70s prog-rockers High Tide, with a slightly abrasive yet semi-opaque recording quality to match. On the evidence of the album’s striking opening track, Hangnail, I might perhaps describe the ambience as brooding elemental gothic, but its dirty, gritty stomp, though clearly coming from the same musical gene pool as the ominous boogie of the title song and the pounding percussion call-and-responses of I Will Be Your Man, forms but one facet of the duo’s highly individual musical expression. Sure, one could say there’s an element of theatricality to their music on the aptly named Call To Arms, where the primal, gut force of heavy kick drum propels the equally heavy violin and guitar (and an assortment of other sounds) along beneath the duo’s eerily wailing, rootsy vocals.
#CALL TO ARMS RDO PLUS#
Harrow Fair is a Canadian duo comprising Miranda Mulholland (of Great Lake Swimmers and Belle Starr) and Andrew Penner (of Sunparlour Players), whose initial collaboration came while working with Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre Company where they wrote music together. And the New Survival-Based Mode, Call to Arms, is now available with triple RDO, XP, and Gold for all who play this week, plus an Offer for 30 off any Novice or Promising Role Item (received.
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