Musical activities of Graeme Lockett.
About four years ago I accidentally grew a scruffy beard and posed for some photos next to a gallows pole in Wiltshire on a bitterly cold February Sunday. I hatched a plan at that point to write and record a bunch of songs designed to sound not out of place on the Wicker Man soundtrack. Trouble was, about two thousand people had the same idea around the same time. Besides, my 8 track had recently blown up so I had to resort to four-track cassette which is a major pain in the arse when you're trying to be self-indulgent. So that project was rather short lived.
The urge to go "roots" was always there though, but now there is no theme in mind. Head South By Weaving is basically something I have wanted to do for years. Even when I was 17, churning out 90 second nuggets of the middle-class English small town equivalent of Californian hardcore punk (about 8 years too late, naturally) in Winchester, I was secretly going home and listening to "Salamander" by Jethro Tull thinking "ooh that's nice, wish I could do that". Still can't, but never mind.
I'm not a purist by any means. The good old clanking Boss drum machine makes that obvious, and if I have been listening to something .. Records it'll creep in there somewhere...
2008 sees the first Head South By Weaving release thanks to the good people of Fruits de Mer. On a limited run coloured vinyl 7" single will be found covers of Nick Drake's "Day is Done" and Nico's "Frozen Warnings" featuring the glorious tones of Alison O'Donnell. Get it here...
O'Donnell's naturally otherworldly delivery allows her to pick up Drake’s haunting and sentimental 'Day Is Done' and make it her own;
…the almost inimitable Nico's 'Frozen Warnings' is positively dripping with icy darkness that fills the grim but somehow mellow depths of the piece with more superb vocalisation set against the drone of Cale-esque tones and timings.
O'Donnell can hold her head high in the knowledge that she did herself and Drake and Nico proud with her scintillating versions of their songs.
Pete Brown aka Toxic Pete
…a brace of remarkable re-appraisals, whose intention it seems is to have you all a swoon…a caressing ghostly hue woven from the subtle dash of softly shimmering and hauntingly hushed psyche intonations
…captures perfectly the fragile almost chilling monochrome appeal of the original and frames it within a darkly hollowing ethereal soft psyche folk mantra like bewitchment that's both statuesque in deliverance and enchantingly epic in appearance. Indescribably essential.
Mark at Losing Today
…a more powerful rendition of the original without losing any of the feel lyrically that does no harm at all to Nick Drake's, or for that matter, Alison O'Donnell's continuing legacy…
…takes Nico's stark message and drops the temperature further with an intense and hypnotic performance…Quite harrowing…Nico would have loved this!
Nick Leese at Heyday Mail Order, London
Icy stuff!
Stuart Maconie BBC Radio 6 'Freakzone'
…adds an extra darkness and starkness to the already tragic originals…if you think Alison O'Donnell's best work is behind her - think again.
Rough Trade, London
…genuine, black, shimmering and positively medieval in its menace. Winter bleak...Drake is generally pure class and this is a cover that adds lustre…the fractured oscillations wrapped by sneaky percussion makes it all something that a sinister Syd Barrett would be doing for his dominatrix
Unpeeled
"deliciously haunting"
Fran Ashcroft, Happybeat Studios
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