a thread for the unthanks (formerly 'rachel unthank and the winterset')

The first six tracks on the new record are up on Myspace. The harmonies in "Because He Was a Bonny Lad" are particularly gorgeous.
http://www.myspace.com/rachelunthank

i really like the idea of this group. robert wyatt covers? child ballads? check. neat instrumentation? check. but something about it still struck me as a bit too willful, almost mannered.

There must be loads of places called 'Unthank' because I've seen it a lot while driving around northern parts, on local signs, the fronts of buses, etc. It's such a horrible word that it stays with you. Maybe it's a northern equivalent of names like Strand or Mile End that crop up all over. I wish I knew what it meant.

Members

Rachel Unthank (voice, cello and feet)
Becky Unthank (voice and feet)
Niopha Keegan (fiddle and voice)
Adrian McNally (piano and voice)
Chris Price (guitar, bass, ukelele, dulcitone) 

Saw them last night at the Union Chapel, first time I had seen the 10 piece band, pretty damn great, at times the sound was verging on bands like Rachels (npi)

The only downside was David Thomas Broughton as support, really mismatched, and he came across as a collosal arse.

New one - Last, as in "lasting," not "last record" - out in March. Apparently there's a cover of Tom Waits' "No One Knows I'm Gone" and a King Crimson tune.

...And another one, out in February. Seems to be all originals. "Trip-hop" content promised, eek. Here's the single, which is of course very nice; the album version is 10+mins according to iTunes.

https://soundcloud.com/the-unthanks/mount-the-air-single-version

so I'd never actually read the real testimony of Patience Kershaw before and it is just as heartrending as the song suggests (as is the rest of the 1842 testimony collected here):

http://www.victorianweb.org/history/ashley.html

anyway I wish this lot would do a north american tour sometime

Not a huge amount to say other than I saw them at the Green Man back in the mid 00s and was transfixed but somehow stopped paying attention. Anyway, I've just discovered the Diversions 2 set and King of Rome has reduced me to a blubbering wreck.

Here's The Tender Coming (the song) completely destroys me.

most emotionally shattering Unthanks songs:

Fareweel Regality
Testimony of Patience Kershaw
Here's the Tender Coming
Gallowgate Lad
Died for Love

Just working through some of these. Jesus.

I think part of the reason I lost them was buying the album for an old mate who grew up in the north east and had set up various folk clubs in Newcastle. He had most of the tracks on The Bairns in his DNA and was kinda scathing about their interpretations (saying they were deliberately melodramatic and overtly sorrowful versions of songs he knew as raucous and wild). I'm far too suggestible and it put me off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyAPZaey7PQ

the melodrama is the whole point!

was wondering what this crew was up to, turns out they have a triple-EP set out on 02/22

http://www.the-unthanks.com/lines/

Lines pt:3 Emily Brönte is up on Spotify, it's as beautiful as you'd hoped it would be.

the other two parts are up as well, in the EPs section

Ah I couldn't find them at first, ta! What's your first impression? I like how sparse it is (pt3)

I've only given it all a cursory listen - there's a lot going on here

idk it's all nice and worthwhile but it feels like an extension of their "Diversions" series as opposed to a proper album of any kind. it feels more like a pretty thesis project than a project to get absorbed by

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgTLkQ76QPM

here's, uh, paul from orbital covering the cure with the Unthanks gals on vocals? it's....really something