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‘Colonialism and nationalism, we’re rejecting all that’: the folk musicians rethinking Britishness
Exciting British collectives such as Broadside Hacks and Shovel Dance Collective are embracing ancient traditions to create an ultra-inclusive form of folk
Over a pint of bitter in a muggy Camberwell pub, Daniel S Evans of folk music iconoclasts Shovel Dance Collective regales me with what he calls the “fable” of the group’s origin: a gig featuring “25 minutes of free improv with this incessantly loud sine-wave playing”, ending with a high-speed rendition of Irish traditional The King of the Fairies. Photograph: Brad GilbertThe nine-piece Shovel Dance Collective smear traditional tunes with psychogeographic field recordings; during the pandemic they created a swirling, hour-long YouTube drone epic encouraging viewers to join the London Renters Union. For those on the right, harking back to tradition is an easy way to display nationalistic pride and exclude those who do not fit into narrow definitions of Englishness (the now defunct far-right British National Party even once created its own folk music label).
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