What the hell is that about, Kemper Norton?
In the first of what could be an irregular series, Kemper Norton talks us* through his latest album track-by-track.
Troillia, the latest self-released album by Kemper Norton, is inspired by Cornish dances (or troyls), Scottish children's songs and other social, family and community events and entertainments - and its just wonderful, one of our albums of the year (if we did such things, which we don’t).
Echoes and Dust like it too, as do The Wire, and The Quietus - it fits quite nicely into their New Weird Britain view of the outer edges of the British musical landscape, but it’s much more than that.
Kemper Norton have been making some of the most beautiful, joyous and unsettling music of the last 10 years, and this album is something very special.
Of course, we are completed biased - we stumbled across them with their album on Exotic Pylon back in 2013, alongside their connections to Wyrd sounds from the West Country and Joe Stannard’s Outer Church.
We were then lucky enough to release their following two albums on Front & Follow (now available directly from the band), as well as a collection of remixes and a retrospective of their early work.
Kemper Norton also know how to tell a story - and my god a few people could take some lessons from them in these dreary times of haunty bollocks all over the place.
Anyway, let’s hear from Kemper Norton themselves… enjoy!
The Newquay ' Heva' or North Cornwall 'furry' was popularised in summer 'golowan' festivals. Our opening track is prefaced here by a few words of Blake as read by Nicol Williamson, whose voice eagle-eared fans may have noticed was used extensively in our last couple of albums.
We usually like to echo previous work in the opening track of a new album in this way, but nobody has ever noticed or remarked on this and to be honest I'm not sure why we bother. The notes for this album will be full of such gems of knowledge and insight x
"The shuffle step in Lattapuch is slower and more relaxed than that in Boscastle Breakdown. The emphasis is more on the shuffle than the step preceding it"
- from An Daras : The Conish Folk Arts Project
The track also contains extended and manipulated samples from a highly popular children's television programme...can you identify it?
A prize for successful answers awaits.
The dialect expression “to dance the Phibbie” refers to a horse whipping.
“Cannot you dance the Phoebe? Don’t you see what pains I take, Don’t you see how my shoulders shake, Cannot you dance the Phoebe?” Halliwell-Phillips " Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words”.
Crowshensa: Originally composed as a solo dance by Mary Scarrot for formal display, and victorious in the 1996 Cornish Dance Competitions.
Our version is not likely to win any dance contests.
My dad remembers this Scottish playground chant but doubts my version's absolute authenticity. Despite being born in Leith I wasn't there long enough to pick up the accent and decided against putting one on here...
Kemper Norton photographed by Jon Baker for The Wire
On we plough...the starting point for this one was a YouTube grab of a loop from a Cornish dancing festival and the extended mangling and ruining of said loop was pretty much completed live in one take . I may have had cider.
Again, here are some guidance notes from An Daras:
“The moves for this dance have been taken from the quadrilles and used with a traditional style of dancing. The idea is that only half the set is present and dancers therefore have to dance from different positions in order to complete the pattern. This has a spiral effect for the dancers thus the name 'Corwedhen' literally meaning a 'spiral' or 'whirlpool'.”
This one took ages for some reason, mostly due to trying to mix harps, recorders, and high-pitched tones in a way that wasn't like one annoying shriek.
No idea if it worked.
Like the rest of the album, it was aiming for a summer mood but as usual we failed the barbecue good vibe test. Oh well, next time it'll be nothing but party bangers.
"Our bonfires, torches, and tar-barrels, with the peculiar hand-in-hand dance around the blazing piles” from William Bottrell ‘Traditions and Hearthside Traditions of West Cornwall’.
The track also contains a section of Down in the valley (trad.) sung by Peggy MacGillivray from ‘Singing in the Streets : Scottish Children's Songs’.
"Don’t you see how my shoulders shake, cannot you dance the Phoebe?”
Apart from being called ' barrel-shaped' in The Wire a few years ago (I considered suing) the only wounding criticism I remember ever receiving was on some nerdy discussion forum where I was referred to as a "pseudo-rural Four Tet wannabe".
They might well have something here. As with the rest of the album, contains lots of Sarah and Duck samples.
Gookow, from Goky – fool:
A walking pace version. Everyone takes turns as the gookow and has a long hard think about it.
"Dancers form lines (or circles indoors) hand in hand, One Man dances in and out of the arches and arms are brought down to catch him. If he is caught he joins the line and the one who caught him takes over. If he was caught then he was a Gookow, if he survived he was a good man" - An Daras: The Cornish Folk Arts Project.
Cantol refers to a candle dance and contains samples of an Essex wedding chant recorded live and late at the wedding of Nick Hills and Jane Bartholomew some time in the early 21st Century.
Like any good party, it goes on too long and gets a bit messy.
Thanks for listening and putting up with these utterly needless ramblings x
"... children may be, after nightfall, occasionally (but rarely) found dancing around painted lighted candles placed in a box of sand...This of course, on the coast can only be done in very calm weather." - Margaret Courtney, Cornish Feast and Folklore, Penzance,Beare and Sons, 1890, p 7.
Buy Troillia by Kemper Norton.
*the notes above originally appeared on Kemper Norton’s Facebook page, so he didn’t actually talk to us. We’ve built up our part, sorry.
