Frankie says Dance, Dance, Dance. Til you drop. And you probably will……..

KEENLY ANTICIPATED….

……..isn’t the half of it, waiting to see what Frankie can do with a full album. Here at ATB we have observed and enjoyed the content of both the EPs that have preceded this, agog at what can be done with a violin, a voice and both a table and pedal board of FX. All, too, in the name of trad.arr. Would this be more of the same or would there be some progression, a new direction or a back to basics unplugged curveball? OK, we knew the answer to that one, courtesy the flurry of advance single releases and then, bang, the astonishing trio show at Manchester Folk Festival.

A DISPARATE DEVELOPMENT

Trio? We’ll come to that, but first some background. Electro-folk is how Archer identifies, a sort of what once was called folktronica, a genre that sweeps back into the last century, encompassing all sorts of effects and electrickery and including such luminaries as Jim Moray, more of whom later. 2023 saw Archer’s first foray, Never So Red, a defiantly solo project, combining synths, manipulated samples and drum tracks to deliver old trad songs into a new dimension.

For 2024’s Pressure and Persuasion, the focus was more re-framing and questioning the harmful narratives inherent in traditional songs, specifically the oppression of women therein, feeding the ongoing tropes lingering on into the present day. A fiddle student of countless pub sessions and possessed of a sweet unstructured voice, awash with the flavour of her native North East, and self-taught in production and synths, she has woven these disparate textures together. But there was more she wanted to deliver.

Enter Guy Massey, producer extraordinaire, with a track record encompassing Kylie Minogue and Ed Sheeran, names seldom featuring at ATB, to the Libertines and Amy McDonald. One of his clients has been Fran O’Hanlon, aka AJIMAL, the multi-instrumentalist polymath from Newcastle, and he too is integral to this project, co-producing with both Massey and Archer. Moray? Well, he co-produced, mixed and recorded her two EPs, returning for a part in one of these 9 tracks, too.

NU-ANCIENT TRAD BANGERS

Inspired by the medieval Danse Macabre, or The Dance Of Death, Archer says this is “a collection of nu-ancient trad bangers”. Death And The Maiden, which opens, is certainly ancient, but never has it sounded quite like this. It starts with a flourish of multi-tracked and fiddles, that suddenly seem to morph into Beethoven 5 (Ed.: Schubert apparently), before cutting to allow Archer’s gamine tones to take centre stage, with only a residual string shimmer, that becomes increasingly ominous. Some harmonies take on the role of death, a mix of pitch-shifting Archers. Some eldritch drum rolls, also O’Hanlon, combine with some doom laden synth barrage. And so it goes, this conversation between the two titular parties, all very Hammer House of Goth. Much heavier fare than we have come to expect from Archer, with even a metal guitar solo, from Archer. Massey’s Grand Guignol mix is immense.

ALCHEMICAL SUCCESS

The Outlandish Knight is a song close to Archer’s heart, being a rare instance of the female “victim” overturning the tables, instead killing the would be murderer. A brisk tip tap drum programme propels the narrative: “Don’t even think of it, don’t even try!“. A sinewy fiddle pattern fires up the end section, which, with accompanying grisly backgrounds moans, something the singer is showing herself to be well adept in, ahead the brusque cliff drop ending. If you are seeking a theme across this set, illicit love and its aftermath is possibly the one, this repeated for In Brunton Town. This tale unfolds slowly over an escalating squelch of moody bass. A spoken middle eight escalates the tension. All good cheery stuff, eh!

KEEPERS ALL

We know the next two, The Unquiet Grave and The Demon Lover, keeping the thematic interface of death and sex centre frame. Of the first we said: “It is utterly eerie and effectively bewitching“, that feeling now magnified. Possibly a personal highlight of the whole set. Mind you, our John Barlass said, of the second : “It might just be the best thing that this revelatory musician has ever done“, so fair to say they are both keepers.

A song less well travelled than many of these, Young Edwin Of The Lowlands Low gets described, by Archer, surprise, surprise, a “straight-up trad murder ballad“. There is still a daunting electronic presence, but it also displays possibly her finest fiddle across this selection. The perpetrators here, rather than the lover, are her parents, who kill young Edwin for his money, hard earnt at sea for his marriage nest egg.

JUDDERY & JITTERY

Next up, is it or is it not a reprise, as it is Oxford City, familiar as the opening track from Never So Red. With Jim Moray’s name within the credits, it might seem so, and , superficially, at least, sounds so. But there is sufficient diversion and deviation in balance and sonic to suggest it more likely a remix, given Massey is also credited, for the mix and mastering. All then ends with the chilled and trancey The Lover’s Ghost. It has a delectably juddery and jittery arrangement that conjures up well the narrative: boy meets girl, boy taps on girls window at night, events unfold and, finally, boy reveals he is a ghost, on the way to the other world. Don’t you just hate it when that happens?

TRANSFORMATION

This is one heck of a leap forward for Archer, suggesting that the endearing nervousness that shone through her earlier incarnation may be a thing of the past. Indeed, that was amply demonstrated at the aforementioned Mancs gig, where she performed as a trio, engaging the duo of Amy Thatcher and Francesca Knowles, aka ATFK, to replicate and develop on the roles played by Massey and O’Hanlon. Hence the comment around trios. Archer was transformed, a living breathing hybrid of Kate Bush and Genesis-era Peter Gabriel, each at their most theatrical. And, irrespective the umpteen reconfigurations that the tradition has been subject, over the centuries, it is fair to say it has never quite sounded like this. It’s a yes from us!

Live photography from Manchester Folk Festival 2026.

Frankie Archer: Website

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