Review: India Electric Co, The Jam Jar – ‘Their take on pop is literate and eclectic’

There is something quintessentially English about this gig. Not only is it absolutely slinging it down outside but the two acts that sit (Jack Cookson) or strut (India Electric Co.) across the Jam Jar’s foliage strewn stage perfectly showcase where English Folk music is right now.

Cookson finds his guitar, takes a seat, strums a chord and exhales. He looks weary. Hardly surprising, probably, because, as well as being a Folk singer with a lovely strong voice, he’s training to be an electrician.

This is a man that’s been nominated for a BBC Folk Award for goodness’ sake! That’s the state of Folk music right there – thank you very much Covid.

What’s more ridiculous is that his set is superb. Angry, feminist and wordy on Ironashley; sorrowful and proud on Michael’s Boat and dreamily, lazily slow on a cover of Running Up That Hill (“I was doing this song before Stranger Things”).

India Electric Co. are a different thing altogether. They form the nucleus of Midge Ure’s touring band, have just been off wowing Europe and are well used to playing bigger (but no less lovely) places than The Jam Jar.

Normally a two-piece of Cole Stacey and Joseph O’Keefe, tonight they are joined by a drummer, Russell Field (also from Ure’s band). Where, in the past, they’ve been a quirky, off-beat Folk duo with a shiny pop edge, tonight they are fully formed and free. Pop songs that glitter and glisten, sweep and swoon.

India Electric Co.’s take on pop is literate and eclectic. Drawing influence from, amongst others, Nitin Sawhney, Villa-Lobos and Robert Frost they are only really Folk music by the very merest of associations.

Sometimes Stacey unleashes his inner Jeff Buckley, his voice swooping and sighing, at other times O’Keefe seems to be playing about six instruments at once whilst Field adds intricate, jazzy rhythms.

They are a strange mix really; Stacey the consummate, passionate showman, O’Keefe the shy musical wizard.

Only Waiting is a proper rock song, the perfect way to forget about the rain outside as symbols crash around a Klezmer violin and Stacey’s guitar. On Heimat, you realise just how much Field’s drumming adds to the sound.

It’s an extraordinary song anyway but, suddenly, there are different layers, different levels. No longer something constrained and Folky, it’s entirely unfettered. The contrast is remarkable.

Later in the set Beirut and Lost in Translation do something similar. O’Keefe adds gorgeous Eastern European violin to one and sublime accordion to the other. All the while Stacey’s vocals remind you that these are perfect, lost pop hits.

Great Circles and Statues are both taken from the latest, brilliant album, The Gap, and are both deliciously glossy, grown up, slices of pop. All that time playing 80s mega hits is clearly rubbing off.

On The Girl I Left Behind Me there’s almost something of The Wonder Stuff about the driving indie rhythms and the breakneck accordion- not bad for an 18th century sea song. It is, however, a cover that knocks you back on your heels.

Springsteen’s I’m on Fire has long been a favourite in the Electric Co set but, tonight, it’s beautiful. Wracked and shorn of the macho nonsense that the original has, this is a song that burns with longing and is seared with heartache. It’s better than the original, by a thousand miles.

The gig marked the first show on a UK tour but there are no wrinkles that need smoothing, nothing that needs fine tuning. There’s nothing stodgy or waterlogged, this is just the loveliest, most life affirming, cleverest Folk-ish pop imaginable.

Main photo: Gavin McNamara

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