大象传媒

Back in the day, when the industrial revolution was clanging loud, the romantic poets used to the head off for the lakes and the mountains, to catch their breath and to blether about "emotion recollected in tranquillity". It worked for William Wordsworth and a few centuries later, it's still doing it for Three Tales.

And while Lake Windermere isn't so easy to access, Three Tales have found an able substitute in 'The Silent Valley'. There they go, slowly winding their way to a centrepiece of the Mourne Mountains only to remark, rather disconsolately, that it is closed. "How do you close a valley?", they mither. At this stage, the listener may smile, at the vanity of man and the poor fortunes of our musician friends.

Perhaps some of these same listeners have also smiled at the music of Will Oldham, who can take us from terrifying art to pure comedy in an instance. Let it not be forgotten that the guy wanted to make love to a mountain, and we believed him. He also made it acceptable for great music to sound unconventionally rough, for the drum sounds to rattle around the room, against the sterile studio conventions.

And so Three Tales unspool their stories, their arcane journeys and the whispered intensity of 'Variation', which steals a bit from a Louis MacNeice poem and turns up the guitars near the end. There's a similar deal with 'A Cast Of Hawks', miniature stories and melodic drifts. It's a bit Old Testament and a tad Steve Albini. If you can reference such stuff, you're on it.

And so it journeys, from the Ulster Bible belt to the indie heartlands. The songs are whittled away like an old guy will work at a piece of wood, methodically and without excess drama. 'Join Our Lusty Chorus' is an Alasdair Roberts tune that sounds perfectly ancient, honed in a wind-lashed croft, sung by a poacher boy, elated by the promise of a May courtship.

Occasionally the music is mannered, awed by the lo-fi legends. Still, this is a record that was worth making. 听

Stuart Bailie

Three Tales
Three Tales (Furious Tradesmen)