Review | Songlines

The Escape

Rating: ★★★★

View album and artist details

Album and Artist Details

Artist/band:

Urban Folk Quartet

Label:

SAE Records

Aug/Sep/2015

The Urban Folk Quartet have been a mainstay on the UK folk scene for a good while now, and there's a reason for it: their music is exciting, invigorating, and most of all good fun. The Escape is their third solo album and follows up 2011's Off Beaten Tracks with a collection of tunes largely composed by the quartet, with a few traditional numbers thrown in. The fiddle playing from Paloma Trigás and Joe Broughton is wonderful throughout; the lyricism in their melodic lines in ‘Upward Spiral’ is terrific. Indeed, the level of musicianship from the entire quartet is remarkable. Tom Chapman's percussion work – flanked by Dan Walsh on the banjo and guitar – provides a thundering pace to the album. Their cumulative handiwork is most apparent on the medley ‘The On On/The Getaway/Control Zed’. Cascading fiddle motifs, blisteringly fast banjo picking, and some mean cajón work make it quite an exciting journey. There are slower moments, too, with album closer ‘The Language Barrier’ demonstrating the ensemble's capacity to be as serene and charming as ‘Barnstorming’ is energetic.

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