Brown Wimpenny: Long Live Brown Wimpenny Review – Bawdy and Shambolic Folk Collective
Brown Wimpenny, a sprawling Manchester folk collective named after a 19th-century relative, delivers a debut album that foregrounds folk's rough edges. The band, formed in Sunday sessions in banjo player Seth Lockwood's living room, explores an hour-long, ambitious set of eight tracks that pulse with raw energy.
The album opens with a high-reaching medley, building from an atmospheric fiddle-led instrumental over a low cello drone. Dusty live production highlights the music's cracks and creaks, but Lockwood's athletic banjo leads with arresting dynamism. Tracks like The Sheffield Grinder/Black Joak link a northern industrial ballad to a bawdy London broadside, though accordionist and singer James Brown sometimes overplays the swashbuckling style.
Other adventurous blends include O'Keefe's/Farewell to Whalley Range, beautifully led by flautist Ella Evans, and Often Drunk/Kings of Kerry/Teddybear Jig, which ventures into unholy territory before tipping into extravagance. The group shares a world with Shovel Dance Collective and Goblin Band, devoted to unearthing folk music, but their focus on shambolic rough edges risks sounding fetishistic and distracting from the songs.
The group shines in quieter moments: the gorgeous opening passages of Raglan Road, the dying minutes of Jesus at Thy Command, and the moving communal singing of Pratty Flowers (The Holmfirth Anthem). The least showy track, Old Molly Metcalfe, introduced by a sample of Yorkshire chansonnier Jake Thackray, is the album's best moment, with every strummed string, fiddle shimmer, and soft harmony landing with emotional impact.
Other Notable Folk Releases This Month
Magic Tuber Stringband's Heavy Water (Thrill Jockey) explores the effects of a nuclear arms plant on rural South Carolina, blending stunningly played folk tunes and field recordings into an astonishing world touched by magic and terror.
Norway's Hytta Trio releases Vindespel (self-released), mixing hardanger fiddle folk roots with new music and jazz. Tracks like Dråpeslått and Sildreslått take jig and reel rhythms into stranger, dreamier spaces.
Frankie Archer's The Dance of Death (self-released) offers nine 'nu-ancient trad bangers' that inject trip-hop atmospheres and beats into ballads while preserving their edge and avoiding glossy novelty.
