O’Hooley & Tidow – The Hum (No Masters)

Huddersfield duo Belinda O’Hooley and Heidi Tidow were named best act of the Cambridge Folk Festival 2012 by The Guardian, who in particular cited their unconventionality and adventure. With their third album, The Hum, these musical traits are given full rein with the help of producer and multi-instrumentalist Gerry Diver who is best known as the man behind Sam Lee’s Mercury nominated 2012 debut A Ground of its Own. From the opening title track to the very witty and lively ode to beer and the changing culture of ale (‘Summat’s Brewin’) and its place in the lives of communities, and via the sensitive and sorrowful, piano-led song of motherhood and forced separation on Two Mothers, O’Hooley and Tidow are very much on the side of ‘the people’ as expressed via The Hum itself: “The hum is the sound of the people… decisions from above, from those who have the means…. expunge community, how lovely it must be.”

But, following the downbeat hues and lyricism of previous album The Fragile, the girls shine a slightly more optimistic light on human nature, incorporating straight ahead tales about current politics such as Coil & Spring, which is co-written by Chumbawumba’s Boff Whalley, a song about the Pussy Riot protests, but also mythical creations such as on Kitsune, a love story about a fox who becomes a woman. Overall, The Hum highlights and praises the essentially resilient nature and fortitude of those on the frontlines of deprivation, oppression, and simple bad luck. Once again O’Hooley and Tidow, who enjoy a civil partnership together in real life, sing beautifully together; sometimes as counterpoints, sometimes solo, but always as one.

The Hum features their best songwriting to date (as well as some choice, yet distinct, covers of songs by the likes of Nic Jones and Ewan MacColl), matched by the very impressive and expressive instrumentation and production work of Diver, who succeeds in creating and mimicking the ‘hum’, the sounds of life in all it’s natural and artificial complexity.

In reaching beyond traditional folk and roots circles they have created simply beautiful music that is not so much unconventional, as both worldly and otherworldly.

Rating: