WRAPPING UP 2012 with The Eccentronic Research Council

“This is the North, the fantastical North, home of proud, hard graftin' bastards..." Some records are steeped in a particular location or thick with geographical reference points but "1612 Underture" - created by Sheffield duo The Eccentronic Research Council and Lancastrian actress Maxine Peake - is one of the richest, most atmospheric, most authentic evocations of a - partly mythical - place you will hear committed to tape. And much of it is set in the 17th century as part of its re-telling and commemoration of the Pendle witch trials of 1612. “Part psycho-geographical field-trip, part history lesson and part contemporary state-of-the-nation address” I said writing about it a few weeks ago but maybe The Quietus put their finger on what makes the album a success: "On first glance, the cover art of "1612 Underture", the preponderance of vintage synths – patched to sound as if they're being played by men in white lab coats - and the subject matter (the Pendle Witch Trials) all point towards one thing: hauntology. But this excellent record on Manchester's Bird label isn't some generic late adopter's attempt to take on the Moon Wiring Club, rather a genuinely unhinged, unique and deliciously weird pop album".

Council member Adrian Anthony Flanagan gives us his take on 2012 - emotions and facial expressions indicated in brackets.

What I will remember most about 2012 is...
Our Government’s psychological war on its own People. Mother Nature flexing her muscles. The surprise that people were surprised about Sir Jimmy, not being surprised what people will do to keep their precious jobs, justice for the Hillsborough 96; 2012 does seem to be the year where everyone you’re supposed to trust or rely on for protection has been revealed to be a crook, a liar, a charlatan. The Genocide on Syria. The endless Tory attempts to steal the NHS. Jessica Ennis winning her Olympic Gold. Man City's league winning game against QPR and the goodwill & kindness shown towards our album '1612 Underture'.. I'm very proud of it..If I was to never write another word or note I'd be happy if that was my final word and note...but...over my dead body (laughs)

What should be forgotten about 2012...
That Boris Johnson still lives (serious face).



The best gig we played was...
Festival Number 6 at Portmeirion for the atmosphere and location and a Spiegeltent in Sheffield for the performance. There was a bit of a eureka moment in Sheffield where the live group really gelled and sounded pretty special/unique.

The best gig I saw was...
I can't watch live bands without feeling I'm facing the wrong way but the most enjoyable stuff I've seen this year has been at tiny D.I.Y nights around 'non venues' in Sheffield. New groups that people should know about/check out are a 3 piece called Blood Sport. They've got that Can & Neu catatonic groove thing going on but with a noise thing that's quite their own over the top, it's both hypnotic but uncomfortable, a winning formula. I also quite like a man & woman duo called Flaming Skulls, heavy Bonham style drums with a lass playing proper rock riffs better than the boys and with a voice that sounds like she's been possessed by a poltergeist. You can imagine her head spinning round 360 degrees as she sings... it's good. There's loads of good music beavering away in Sheffield that on the whole will be forever just Sheffield's, that's not a bad thing though.

A record from 2012 that will be still be played in 10 years time?
I love the Mary Epworth album 'Dream Life', inventive but melodic witchadelia. I'm a sucker for weirdos with big ideas. I Also like the BEAK and Pye Corner Audio LPs. Some people think it’s a crime to have an album with lots of different styles and sounds on it, these kind of people tend to like stupid records. Like this year’s ‘Birdie Song’, ’Gangnam Style’ (laughs).

Overlooked in 2012?
The 200 bowl cut toupees sported by 40 somethings in the first few rows of the Stone Roses reformation concerts.

And what can we look forward to in 2013 from The Eccentronic Research Council?
We may do a couple of live events between now and the start of the New Year but after that the live thing will probably take a break for a while. Maxine's got quite a bit on with TV and film through Spring and Summer so it's going to be hard to fit live shows in... but you never know maybe the odd sporadic last minute appearance where we are not welcome (laughs).

I'd like to start writing and recording another ERC album in late Winter/Spring and get that out late Summer, to be honest I've not really thought hard about it but we've all said we'd like to do something but how that manifests itself and when I'm not too sure. There's never been a plan...The ERC isn't a predictable beast it's a few pals who come together occasionally whilst doing other things to do something out of the realms and constraints and rules of their usual things, to let loose like a great big sexy demon. (Laughs).

There's still one chance to catch the big sexy demon that is The Eccentronic Research Council live this year: in a secret location in Preston this Sunday as part of the Frozen North Weekender. Excellent support is provided by Emma Tricca and Paper Dollhouse all for the bargain ticket price of £10. Plus look out for two January shows to be announced this week: 18 January at Queens Social WMC in Sheffield and 19 January at Hebden Bridge Trades Club. And regardless of your affinity to the North of England or not, "1612 Underture" is an essential purchase.

THE ECCENTRONIC RESEARCH COUNCIL 1612 Underture

The exquisitely monikered electronic duo of Adrian Anthony Flanagan and Dean Honer have created a beguiling, gritty, poetic beauty of a record that is part psycho-geographical field-trip, part history lesson and part contemporary state-of-the-nation address. “Practical Electronics enthusiasts from Sheffield, make spooked out spoken word LP with Maxine Peake” is how The Eccentronic Research Council underplay their achievements on “1612 Underture” an album based around “the mistreatment and memory of the Pendle Witches” in this the 400th anniversary year of their deaths.

There are musical backdrops and interludes of library music corruptions, Kraftwerk-like machine pulses and windy drones over the course of this 37 minute journey o’er hill and back in time. But in the foreground is the narration – and latterly singing - from stage and screen actress Maxine Peake. You only need to listen to scene-setter ‘Autobahn 666 (Travelogue #1)’ to know that this is neither opportunistic celebrity casting nor novelty but a match made in rain-swept heaven (“Welcome to the North...like all beautiful flowers, we need our rain”). By your third listen, it’s inconceivable anyone else could deliver this front-woman role that pulls all the time and space dimensions of “1612 Underture” together so well.

Peake brings a flinty, hard-edged Northern attitude to the record whether it’s a road-trip into the heart of Lancashire in the travelogues (the elegiac ‘From The Grave To The Freshcos Late (Travelogue #4)’ is particular moving), the bitter, first-person re-telling of the biased trial and persecution the ‘witches’ (‘Trial By Jiggery Pokery’ and others) or the angry, final condemnation of contemporary mores and celebrity obsessions in ‘Ghost Of Old Lizzy Southerns Returns’. There is a rich eloquence to this demotic poetry whether modern or ancient, whether condemnatory or conversational (“tourism is a funny old fox-trot in Pendle Town... how do we market the loss and hanging of women?”). As well as the anger and observational sharpness that ridicules David Cameron, the EDL, Jeremy Kyle and Matthew Wright, there is also a winning humour (“curse the Twentieth Century Yorkshire versus Lancashire bread-cake versus barm-cake debacle...[pause] it’s a barm-cake”) to off-set the analogue spookiness worthy of Broadcast at their most occult and morbid.

“1612 Underture” is released on Jane Weaver’s Bird imprint which to date has concentrated on female folk singers either current or overlooked from earlier decades. At first the shadowy and bearded Eccentronic Research Council appear unlikely bed-fellows with the label. But their collaboration with Maxine Peake not only has strong feminist leanings in its uncovering of injustice and prejudice both then and now, it also fulfils a definition of folk as music of the people. I saw some Twitter shock that this album wasn’t included in Top 100 albums of the year from Manchester’s Piccadilly Records. The more I play it, the more I agree. It’s a fascinating listen and one that deserves to reach far beyond its hard graftin' Northern patch.



The Eccentronic Research Council 1612 Underture [BUY]