Locks & Bolts

There's innovation in the settings Nick Janaway and Sarah Owen bring to these traditional songs recorded live in Bristol in January. Their vocals – Owen's strident tones and Janaway's rather formal elocution – are something of an acquired taste; they tend to react against each other rather than harmonise. It's their electro-acoustic settings that are really interesting, with the likes of ‘Lucy Wan’, ‘Dives & Lazarus’ and ‘I’ll Make My Love a Garland’ comprised of laptop effects and household percussion – the beat on ‘Garland’ is achieved by plucking a comb. These are radical recompositions – ‘Lucy Wan’ especially drawing deep from the digital well of endless possibilities to create a weirdly distorting sense of descent into the song's essential horror. ‘Come to My Window’, paired with ‘The Complaining Maid’, similarly employs digital glitches and stutters to tie the tale in a fresh set of knots, while the acoustic touches of guitar, dulcimer and piano quietly frame the electronics and voices.

This is an ambitious experiment in live electronics and traditional song from an inventive duo; it more than lives up to the promise of their 2012 studio debut, Lips of Clay.