If there’s one thing The Unthanks can do really well, it’s evoke images of a northern yesteryear. In this latest offering from the sisters and their band, they rework folk songs by the likes of Graeme Miles, Alex Glasgow and Peter Franklyn Bellamy to bring the listener tales from hard workers and memories of...
Metal and rock are, of course, both well-established as musical genres. Wood is less so, but the Unthanks’ Adrian McNally is out to change that. As part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, a boat constructed from wood donated by the public was ‘sailed’ inland to Milton Keynes. Obviously. McNally was commissioned to put...
The band is incredibly versatile, from march music offset with sparse, mournful arrangements on the beautiful ‘Trimdon Grange Explosion’, to near classical arrangements on the Prokofiev-reminiscent ‘My Lagan Love’ and the James Bond pyrotechnics in the new rendition of ‘Queen of Hearts’. In its tones and timbre, every track is as reassuringly traditional as...
Following on from our previous announcement regarding this year’s Cambridge Folk Festival line-up, we’re increasingly pleased with the way that 2012 is shaping up, and it’s not even finished yet. The big, warm, fuzzy Mummy of fiddle-led festivals will take place from 26th to 29th July this year, and will feature a few FFS...
As you might expect from a group as interesting as The Unthanks, Diversions is not a straight covers album. Rather it is a re-imagining, a project in its own right, comparable to many other ‘versions’ projects that have emerged from the folk musicians over the years – from cult albums like Jeffrey Lewis’s 12...
Sparky electro-pop and dance were more dominant than folk at this year’s Bestival, but it’s a cheerful mish-mash where sensitive strumming acts are welcomed (as long as they’re not upset by a soft background thud of drum and bass, as King Creosote was). The Unthanks sang beautifully to a very appreciative crowd, accompanied by...
We’re stepping out of our comfort zone here, all of us. FFS is not used to attending gigs – no, wait, this is definitely a ‘concert’ – in venues like the magnificent 19th century Leeds Town Hall, and while the usually understated Unthanks might have expanded to a ten-piece recently they cannot be too...
While rustic music of an epic thrust becomes ever more popular, sending the likes of folk pretenders Mumford & Sons all the way to the Brit Awards, the Unthanks remain something of a niche outfit, maintaining a high standing among the folk purists yet never troubling the mainstream, bar the odd performance on Later...
Though their previous album, The Bairns, was Mercury-nominated in 2008, I hadn’t heard The Unthanks until I stumbled across Here’s The Tender Coming in a second-hand record shop, spied the pensive-looking girls on the cover, recognised My People and took it home. Their clear-as-a-bell northern voices are something like Blue Roses, and their unadorned...
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