A couple of years ago we somehow got our grubby hands on the debut album, On Safari by The Witch And The Robot. Gradually, it charmed us completely with its wonderful blend of peculiarly British pysch-pop and acid folk accompanied by appropriately surreal lyrics – often about their beloved Lake District.
Since then we’d kind of forgotten about the band until we received an e-mail informing us of their new release – the first of three concept albums in a Rock Opus. Fear of Mountains follows in the tradition of all great concept albums where the idea is not exactly clear… but there are a number of loosely connected characters, all with links to the Lake District. Firstly, an anonymous figure (the person you are meant to identify with), secondly some real life characters such as Josefina de Vasconcellos, a sculptor born to a Brazilian diplomat who died aged 101. Then there is Kurt Schwitters, a dadist who fled the Nazis, ending up in the Lake District, where he died only for his body to be dug up and returned to Germany.
The album opens with Back! Back Baby! that begins with a recording of Ambleside Rushbaring, a pagan tradition, which involves young girls dressing in green and carrying reeds in exchange for gingerbread (harking back to the days when children could trust strange adults with sweets). The album concludes with the last track Together We Are Explosions; a typical regional tale, with the story coming to an end when the protagonist ‘buggers off to London’.
You can listen to the whole album below and download a taste for your iPod in the form of the excellent Houdini.
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Download The Witch And The Robot – Houdini mp3 (from Fear Of Mountains)
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