Shovel Dance Collective: The Shovel Dance (Vinyl LP)

Fantastic experimental trad record from London collective with hints of drone folk.

The Shovel Dance is the most powerful release to date from nine-piece folk group Shovel Dance Collective, bringing studio fidelity and trickery to the rich arrangements and soaring vocals of their concerts - Their new album revolves around the group's interplay and close listening, no matter how many members of the band play on a given song or how many instruments feature (there are twenty-five instruments and eight voices).

With production by Mike O'Malley (caroline) and mastering by Matt Colton (Thurston Moore, Laura Marling), they give their arrangements an experimental edge - as close to Scott Walker or Swans as Shirley Collins or Bert Lloyd - that situates them on the bleeding edge of folk music, with unique beauty, force, and political charge.

1. Abbots Bromley Horn Dance / The Worms Crept Out
   
2. The Merry Golden Tree
   
3. O'Sullivan's March
   
4. The Rolling Wave
   
5. Kissing's Nae Sin / Newcastle / Portsmouth (Come, Come, My Brave Boys)
   
6. Four Loom Weaver
   
7. The Grey Cock