The Square and Compass, Worth Matravers
Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin won the 2014 BBC Folk Award for “Best Duo”, and with all the chat about them I was curious, so have given them a listen on a few occasions. For some reason I was never really that struck, until I found the song “Silver Box” on a folk playlist on Spotify and couldn’t get Hannah’s haunting vocals out of my head. Soon after, I spotted that they were playing at The Square and Compass in Worth Matravers on 5th August. Coincidentally, the evening before, Peter Aston played another of their songs, “The Nailmaker’s Strike pt 2”, from their second album, “Mynd”, on his Forest Folk show and it totally caught my attention. And so it was with great anticipation that I went along, and with great delight that I discovered when I arrived that the Ninebarrow boys and Bob Whitley had had the same idea!
The room at The Square and Compass where they put on their live music is pretty small, with a low ceiling, and the stage area lit with a single bare bulb. Very moody and atmospheric but a bit challenging for photography. It was a music event so obviously I wasn’t going to leave my camera at home, but I thought I would just take a couple of snaps as a record of the evening. But as any photographer knows, this just isn’t possible, especially not with the great opportunities presented by the lighting, so with ISO whacked right up to 6400 and tucked into the back corner of the room, I snapped away.
The sound that Phillip and Hannah can create, as just two people with a couple of instruments, is quite astonishing, and defies categorization, spanning and indeed combining many genres. Hannah takes the lead with most of the singing, with a classic folk voice, a lovely ethereal and effortlessly pure tone. Phillipís voice has a soft warmth that provides a lovely compliment to Hannah, providing support to her vocals and never overpowering her. Hannah also plays banjo and fiddle, and sings whilst fiddling, not easy. But it is Phillip’s choice of instruments that really raises this duo way above your typical folk band. He plays a type of slide lap guitar called a Dobro, which adds a lovely blues flavour to some of their songs. He has also apparently spent two years in India studying classical Indian music and this influence, handled with a very light touch, is evident in many of their songs, with melodies evoking the sound of a sitar and complimenting the blues slide style of playing really quite nicely.
This is not the only unique element of their sound however. I’m not the banjo’s biggest fan but Hannah uses an octave pedal with hers to lower its tone, which also adds a roundness and warmth, and plays it with a subtle and light touch. Phillip has modified his harmonica to play in a lower octave than normal, has created his own stomp box, which I couldn’t really see wedged in my corner spot, but it looked like a little platform that he was actually standing on, and, the piece de resistance, he beatboxes. All at the same time. And it is this that is the most striking and captivating part of their performance for me. Yes, their more traditional folkie songs such as their arrangement of ëSilbury Hillí and the original song ëMiss Wilmotís Ghostí were perfectly executed and well received, and the choice of the beautiful ëWhitsun Danceí very topical, a song about morris dancing traditions being continued by women as their men went off to fight in World War 1.
But. Harmonica, stomp box and beat box! Imagine, a deeper than normal sounding harmonica with crazy reverb, a beat boxed driving dub bassline, and an off beat stomp boxed reggae beat. Can you? They played several songs in this style, including “Death and the Maiden” and my favourite “The Nailmakers’ Strike pt 2” which really got the crowd going, swaying and clapping along. This really should be called folkstep, but I see someoneís already tagged Alt-J with this moniker, and really they share no similarities.
This evening it was standing room only as people crammed in shoulder to shoulder to see Phillip and Hannah play, and they went down a storm. Unfortunately, their studio recordings really do not do their live sound justice, like many folk acts, and I urge you to go and see them play live, they still have lots of festivals lined up over the rest of the summer. You will not regret it.
Links
http://www.philliphenryandhannahmartin.co.uk
http://www.squareandcompasspub.co.uk
Words & Pictures By Jo Elkington.
