I’m giving a little of myself away here, but if a band wants to get me onside they could do worse than send me a fantastically evocative album based upon one of M.R James’ finest ghost stories: something which Suffolk folk-progsters THE FUTURE KINGS OF ENGLAND have done highly successfully here.
Written in 1904, ‘Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come to You my Lad’ is, of course, one of the master’s greatest of all. Regarded (wholly correctly) as a classic of its genre, it concerns a rather stuffy Cambridge professor called Parkins who – while taking his ease on a trip to Burnstow (based upon Felixstowe in Suffolk) – digs up an ancient bronze whistle after literally stumbling upon the ruin of a Knights Templar chapel. Unable to quell his curiosity, the hapless prof blows the whistle and unwittingly unleashes an ancient evil which sets up a truly terrifying, nail-biting denouement. It’s one of many arcane wonders contained within James’ ‘Collected Ghost Stories’ which I urge you to buy ASAP if you’ve never had the eerie pleasure.
While you’re at it, make sure to pick up a copy of ‘Who Is This Who Is Coming?’, this Ipswich quartet’s fourth album, based around said tale of Professor Parkins. I haven’t heard them before, but it appears this LP could be viewed as the third part in a trilogy of sorts, as their second (‘The Fate of Old Mother Orvis’) and third (‘The Viewing Point’) also concern the rich and mysterious folklore and landscape of the band’s native Suffolk.
Whatever the deal, ‘Who Is This Who Is Coming?’ is magnificently spooky in its’ own right. Best enjoyed as a whole, it’s a fascinating ride with its’ 9 tracks totalling just over 40 minutes in all. It’s primarily instrumental in design, save for the two portentous parts of ‘Watcher’ (“a man watches over the horizon far away/ watching me...watching me”), but your attention never threatens to wane as the band (like James himself) quietly ramp up the terror.
As with many of James’ greatest, it all starts innocently enough, with the folks-y, waltz-time accordions, mandolins and birdsong of ‘Journey to the Coast’ lulling you into a pastoral (but false) sense of security, something continues during the haunting, semi-acoustic excerpt (‘Finding the Whistle’) and the sparse, courtly ‘Watcher (Part 1)’ which would almost be Fairport Convention circa ‘What We Did On Our Holidays’.
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The languid, Pink Floyd-ish workout ‘The Globe Inn’ (where Parkins stays in Burnstow during the story) is also deceptively pretty and – with the sound of ominous, trudging footsteps – you’re into track five (the title track) before the story’s creeping menace truly begins to take hold. The initial spooked drone is redolent of the under-rated Bark Psychosis, before mellotron, creepy piano chords, choral ‘ghosts’ and more footsteps over shingle set up a vividly full-on psych-prog attack.
The urgency of this track continues during ‘Convinced Disbeliever’ where Parkins’ stance on the existence of things beyond the scientific pale changes dramatically and the brooding ‘Watcher (Pt.2)’ where he confesses “I have seen a thing I did not want to see/ shadow at the window, moving in the air/ waving at the window of The Globe.”
The album’s key track is probably the epic ten-minute ‘A Face of Crumpled Linen’ where the full horror Parkins has accidentally unleashed becomes all too clear or him, while the aftermath is provided highly effectively by ‘Spectacle of a Scarecrow’ – a poised, almost symphonic musical triumph which is gradually stripped back to sparse keyboards and finally a distant cacophony of crows. Fabulous stuff, for sure.
Housed in a lovingly-presented, gatefold-style sleeve featuring extracts from James’ story, a small portrait of the great man and a representation of the horror inflicted upon poor Parkins, ‘Who Is This Who Is Coming?’ is absolutely spine-tingling. You don’t need runes or hieroglyphics to decipher the fact The Future Kings of England have unearthed a sublime sonic grail here.
The Future Kings of England online
Backwater Records online
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