David Lance Callahan

Former indie gatekeeper’s folk-fusion odyssey.

For his first – terrific – solo album, David Lance Callahan has gone against type. Having fronted sinewy C86-era scrappers The Wolfhounds and the electronic agitators Moonshake, the singer locates a common ground between trad British folk and Saharan blues, with an occasional injection of Eastern strings. Seven frequently lengthy drone-based ballads demand more of Callahan’s vibrant, stark voice than before, and not known for guitar-playing until now, his snaking, thrumming patterns suit the earthy mood. Lyrically, English Primitive I is an uncanny mixture too. Between two class-war tracts – the sarky Born Of The Welfare State Was I and a sombre Always – feverish visions of outliers abound, such as the Goatman (“spriggan eight-foot tall”) and the feral outcast Foxboy, but also One Rainy September’s heartbreaking parent/child breakdown and a slyly romantic She’s The King Of My Life.