Shovel Dance Collective explore and recontextualise the radical roots of traditional folk music. The nine-strong collective – which features members of fellow London-based avant-garde post-rock outfit caroline and ‘post-clown’ experimentalists Gentle Stranger – create virtuosic contemporary folk arrangements that take in elements of drone, free improvisation and metal. Their work also takes a decolonial approach to traditional folkloric material, centring recounts of queer experience, Black consciousness and the working class.
In December, the collective released their new album The Water Is The Shovel of the Shore – drawing on the river Thames as means of exploring the symbolism and significance of water for working people. This Sunday Mix reflects the rich sonic tapestry and folkloric history that inform their work, offering “an eclectic mixture of off-the-cuff Shovel Dance influences” from Patrick Shiroishi’s sprawling saxophone to rousing folk song and celestial choral incantations.
Expect “such oddities as: Loren Connors groaning at his guitar, domestically set Ukrainian folk song, Richard Dawson welcoming a newborn baby into the world, a blacksmith’s bellows-powered pipe organ and, of course, Shirley Collins.”
Sunday Mix: Shovel Dance Collective
Sunday Mix: Shovel Dance Collective
Shovel Dance Collective explore and recontextualise the radical roots of traditional folk music. The nine-strong collective – which features members of fellow London-based avant-garde post-rock outfit caroline and ‘post-clown’ experimentalists Gentle Stranger – create virtuosic contemporary folk arrangements that take in elements of drone, free improvisation and metal. Their work also takes a decolonial approach to traditional folkloric material, centring recounts of queer experience, Black consciousness and the working class.
In December, the collective released their new album The Water Is The Shovel of the Shore – drawing on the river Thames as means of exploring the symbolism and significance of water for working people. This Sunday Mix reflects the rich sonic tapestry and folkloric history that inform their work, offering “an eclectic mixture of off-the-cuff Shovel Dance influences” from Patrick Shiroishi’s sprawling saxophone to rousing folk song and celestial choral incantations.
Expect “such oddities as: Loren Connors groaning at his guitar, domestically set Ukrainian folk song, Richard Dawson welcoming a newborn baby into the world, a blacksmith’s bellows-powered pipe organ and, of course, Shirley Collins.”
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