Imagine if Scott Walker and Joe Meek met at a screening of “The Wicker Man” on the way home they run into Sergio Leone. If that trio were to form a band, it may well sound like Erland and the Carnival.
The great thing about EATC is their sense of musical heritage, but they are far from derivative, they use their awareness to create something that is highly original. The Joe Meek factor is the most immediately apparent; the menacingly haunting keyboards, solid stomping drumbeats that had me checking the stage in case Honey Lantree had wandered on.
Orcadian Erland Cooper proves an irresistible front man, intense and totally immersed in his performance. Toting his guitar like a Kalashnikov, providing embellishments with Moroccan percussion or Theremin. Simon Tong weaves guitar patterns with calm reassurance. There is a quality to EATC that is cinematic; it’s not difficult to imagine them providing the soundtrack for, say, a film of Ray Bradbury’s “Something Wicked This Way Comes”, Erland as fairground barker enticing us into their strange world, we approach with the trepidation of Sgt. Howie landing on Summerisle.
It comes as no surprise that EATC’s music should also encompass traditional folk such as “Gentle Gwen” or their cover of Jackson C Frank’s “My Name Is Carnival”. Frank was a Massachusetts born singer songwriter, who at the age of 11 survived a school fire that killed 15 of his classmates. There is also a setting of William Blake’s poem “The Echoing Green”, all merry go round organ and muted vocals. The set ends with “Trouble In Mind” and the new single “You Don’t Have To Be Lonely”, which career around your head long after you’ve heard them. Funny really, I never thought of Erland And The Carnival as pop. But when a group are this compelling, categories are irrelevant.
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The Wild Beasts have a real sense of drama. The dark of the stage is broken by a starlight effect and brooding blue lights; Steve Reich’s music is overlaid with a Sylvia Plath poem. We are not in Jedward territory here. The first thing you become aware of is how much more power their songs exude in comparison to the recorded versions, from the opening bars of “Fun Powder Plot” the intensity is relentless, the pace remorseless, even during the slower numbers such as “Please Sir” and “Two Dancers”, which lose none of their wistfulness, during the latter Ben Little fiercely thrashes his guitar strings with a drumstick like a post punk Jimmy Page.
Then there is Hayden Thorpe’s extraordinary falsetto, in some circumstances, it could be that his voice would lose its attraction over the length of the set, yet it becomes even more persuasive; soaring during the single “All The Kings Men” (which mentions Whitby, an amazing place) and touchingly plaintive on “Please Sir”.
Two bands that lead us along paths less well travelled, they are worth following. But, if the BBC goes ahead with plans to abolish 6 Music, it’s going to be much more difficult to hear bands like this. They are even chopping the Radcliffe and Maconie show to three a week. We let this happen at our peril, nuggets among so much radio rubble.
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