Mumford & Sons And Laura Marling - 'Dharohar Project Live EP'

As the naysayer’s of nu-folk would have you believe, it’s a lazy genre merely reinterpreting old forms to appeal to a more mainstream crowd. In some ways they’re right. The fledgling scene has given us some crackers, for sure - including releases from two thirds of the artists who feature here - but albums to make the earth fracture beneath the feet? Not yet, and until that day there’s always going to be an argument that the revolutions nothing more than a revolt.
   
Perennially lovely, this is a release that the beardy hoards can lacquer onto the placards as they fight the good folk fight. In December 2009 Mumford and Marling travelled to India to play with the traditional Rajasthani outfit Dharohar Project. The meeting went so well the journey was reciprocated, and from this we got the spellbinding Mumford & Sons, Laura Marling and Dharohar Project EP, and this live EP, taken from the iTunes festival show at London’s Roundhouse in July.

With eight tracks in all, each artist showcases two of their own, then on the final pair collaborate together. In all honesty the offerings from Mumford & Marling are collectors only, merely reiterating what we already know: that the waistcoat wielding deities of contemporary folk play with enough energy to power Basingstoke, and that the loaded susurration of Marling’s pathos is more powerful still. No, what’s really to cherish about this release is the global collision of east and west. The collective roar of the Roundhouse as the Ganasangeet cry of The Dharohar Project‘s ‘Mala Ramaniya’ unravels into tumultuous flourishes of Sarangi, Dholak and Bansuri, and the hypnotising snake float of their second track ‘Shakiri Mere’.

The Dharohar Project, Marling and Mumford & Sons then play together, the latter’s ‘The Darkness’ begins much the same - a sombre midnight walk home from betrayal - before The Dharohar Project unleash and infuse it with enough vitality to make even the Duracell Bunnies that are Mumford blush. Marling’s an artist whose voice has always seemed so powerful stood lone and brazen, but the incanted ‘Devil’s Spoke’ becomes a spellbinding charm which, truly, has never sounded better. As each band’s sound cascades together perfectly, for a moment the music breaks, and Marling sings “I am your keeper” through the silence. Nu-Folk? You can have it, nostalgia’s never sounded like this.