ALEXANDER TUCKER - Portal / ANNE BRIGGS - S/T

 
Cultivating an untrammelled, drony and pagan/Saxon sound (tech-enabled by studio multitracking and live looping, mind you) and singing in a spooked style simpatico with Blue Fog acoustic doomer Wyrd Visions, Alexander Tucker's tunes likewise harness near-metal mystic sustain, married to chugging strings and repetitive fingerpicked figures, causing each song to come off like an ancient introverted war cry, or some modern mead-hall thrash troubadour.

Far less amplified or obtuse, around forty years back and a few branches over in the olde English and Scottish ballad traditions, Anne Briggs' self-titled 1971 album shows why she's considered one of the most important post-war British folk-revival interpreters, and a clear influence on many of Tucker's peers, especially the offhand acapella efforts of Richard Youngs. Fairport fans who haven't yet heard Briggs' debut should check her wildly different takes on Liege & Lief's "Reynardine" and "Tam Lin" (as the variant "Young Tambling"), and the Irish version of "The Cuckoo" she sings bares little resemblance to the one passed down from Clarence Ashley to so many American musicians.