It’s become de rigeur for bands to announce themselves as duos these days. Leave the bass guitar at home – check. Fill up the space with bluesy guitar licks and plenty of kick drum – check. What might happen, though, if a duo got really stripped down? Just percussion and voice, say? Wildbirds & Peacedrums – a Swedish duo of Mariam Wallentin and Andreas Werliin – give us the answer. Incredible. If done by the right duo of course, and Wildbirds & Peacedrums are the right duo.
With only the two making sounds, there’s plenty of space for both to shine. Wallentin’s voice is incredible. Banshee wail, Celtic goddess, intimate lover, dirt track blues ancient; she covers a large amount of ground across The Snake and is engaging at every point. And Werliin’s percussion is just as impressive. At times, a stripped down Tom Waits junkyard, at others, a funked up John Bonham machine – he attacks recklessly when required and creates haunted atmospherics at other times. Snatches of tuned percussion – xylophone, marimba, steel drum etc – give hints at the harmonic underpinning to Wallentin’s melodies, but always maintain their rhythmic pulse. ‘Island’ starts proceedings almost a cappella, a ghostly gælic melody culminating in “Sing a ding a ding a ding a ding a ling”. It sounds way too trite to work, but this is serious stuff, and the performance gives the words a dark menace, undercutting the words with a sinisterness. ‘Places’ is the most stripped back track, left at a single driving drumkit and a blues holler on broken love pushing the needle into the red. It’s truly spinetingling. ‘Liar Lion’ adds a smattering of gospel organ as Wallentin goes early Siouxsie Sioux tribal wailing, “The way the truth becomes a lie”. It hints at the undercurrent of tension between beauty and brutality, primitivism and virtuosity.
I’ve reviewed a large number of good albums this year. It’s actually been a pretty impressive year for releases. But The Snake is heading up near the top of the pile. It’s idiosyncratic without ever abandoning the function of entertainment. It moves through a myriad of moods without ever losing focus. It’s inspired me greatly and continues to unravel depths the more I listen.
Adrian Elmer
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