The music is crafted with intelligence, but it isn't just clever, it's strikingly, achingly, beautiful too. Their concept leads to something which is a lot of fun and very playful via first appearing needlessly odd, and then holding that thought long enough to realise its real depth. If that doesn't sound like enough, then you should also be made aware that it offers a very timely opportunity for reflection on the dramatic changes in British culture, and the wider world, that took place in the snap-shot that was last century.
The album, including a rhythm section partly comprised of mill sounds, is a 'Neo-Prog-Folk-Pop' imagining of life and thought in English Northern mill towns in and around the 1880s. As i said: dramatic changes (i mentioned fun, oddity and depth too though, didn't i?). Change in itself is a neutral thing, subject wholly to what something was and what it is becoming, and even the term 'progress' is relative. So where now we allow indoor toileting et al to deceive us into thinking 'we've come a long way since those days', one of the big questions the album poses is how far have we really come and what has it cost us?
That the concept was born out of the realisation that none of the members of the band are from where they now live is a hint to how heavy a theme community is. In this country we have more freedom with better rights, we're wealthier and better educated than we were, but we're also more fragmented, distrustful and with a weakened sense of identity. To take this theme in the album (particularly given its location in manufacture) to its next step brings to mind thoughts about the 'global village'. We can't go on about the importance of our prize winning rights and freedoms without taking responsibility for the people around the world who are enslaved to manufacture fabrics and clothing for us. Shipping problems like child labour and Dickensian working conditions abroad for us to safely consume from a distance doesn't actually improve much at all.
We can also add to this comment a topical note. There's a line in The Wire series 2 that says "We used to make shit in this country, build shit. Now we just put our hand in the next guy's pocket". Spoken about America, but true too for the UK. The political and economic situation we currently face in the UK is reminiscent of the last time the Conservatives were in power. We were still in an industrial era then, and they privatised what they could and disposed of the rest, most notably the mines. That was the final shift away from the era centered on by The Housekeeping Society, and it was one which devastated communities.
When you take on a whole century or more, the scope and seriousness of the issues you'll face is huge. When you focus on industry and community, all the more so.
Part of what's so clever about the whole thing is the way the songs relate to stories and life in those settings, with both personal resonances, and socio-economic resonances, that reach right across 130 years or so. Hope, ambition, despair, love, work, freedom; it's all there, nothing changes.
If you're interested in the band and their album, here's 3 suggestions:
1. Make a cup of tea and check out a fuller introduction to them and their music on BBC Introducing.
2. For those in and around West Yorkshire, their 3rd (3rd!!) album launch gig is
11 April · 19:00 - 20:30 | |
Wakefield Arts Centre, Thornes Park, Wakefield. Tickets are £2 - ALL PROCEEDS GO TO Water Aid! | |
3. Download The Housekeeping Society, This Way To Power from itunes.
