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While folk music these days seems to have forgotten all the traditional songs that make it the music of the folk, some artists are remembering the old songs that sound as vibrant today as they probably did when they were performed first. Directing Hand know what they are up to when it comes to traditional music, there is a reverence for these songs yet no fear of adding the sound of a new generation to the pieces. Combining these dusty old tunes with improvised pieces of their own, this album is a true new folk music; it sounds like the here and now.
There are two sides to this album (both literally, it being an LP, and figuratively); soft, pastoral folk songs of the kind that Shirley and Dolly Collins have spent their lives cataloguing and recording sit next to furious explosions of free improvisation, tumultuous drumming and ecstatic singing. From the first two songs this dichotomy is plain to see. The gentle pulse of the harmonium (and the squeaks of it being pumped) that begins "The Temptation" provides a warm blanket for Lavinia Blackwall and Alex Neilson's vocals, both of them singing in a high register, coming in clear over the music. This blanket is then swept off, fully exposing the music to the elements in the form of "Speed Agreement," Blackwall's unearthly singing sounding like it is coming from mythical creature.
Throughout What Put the Blood there are countless magic moments where both musicians go beyond just playing together and meld into a perfectly symbiotic unit, feeding into each other to bring the music up to another level. Just when I think that Blackwall has hit her peak in a song, Neilson's drumming picks her up and they smash through whatever barriers might be there. Their version of "My Lagan Love" pushes the song far beyond its limits, six minutes go by before any recognisable melody or lyrics appear. This is by far the jewel in the album’s crown, a mighty combination of free drumming and sleepy Irish ballad.
The album is housed in a gorgeous sleeve; a silhouetted drawing in black, white and bright blood red. The stark and vivid imagery very much suits Directing Hand’s approach to the traditional song. Inserts with a short essay on the group by David Keenan are reminiscent of the type of albums the aforementioned Collins sisters released, words trying to capture the je ne sais quoi that runs through such powerful traditional music (although the focus is more on Directing Hand's improvisational skills with copious references to Albert Ayler and the likes). Although these are just trappings (albeit beautifully done) surrounding what is a wonderful, wondrous collection of songs.

SOUND PROJECTOR - www.thesoundprojector.com
Always nice to showcase an attractive vinyl package as best we may….beautiful and striking screenprinted sleeve art on this one, resembling a dust jacket for a mystery novel published in the 1930s, executed with panache by one of the performers on the LP. This is the second release on Anna Tjan’s Dancing Wayang Records label, a small enterprise in West London. For each release, the idea is that she records the music herself in her own studio, and packages the production for issue as a limited edition art object on her own label. “My aim at this point is to release music that I recorded personally utilizing the studio I work in,” Anna reported in December last year. “I’m trying to have a hands-on approach to the label and the recording and mixing of the material is very much a part of that.” Acting as sound engineer, producer, art director and probably distribution manager as well…you can’t get much more hands-on than that! Directing Hand are Alex Neilson (the free drummer who also appeared on this label’s first LP) and Lavinia Blackwall, a Glaswegian singer with a background in studying and performing early music and member of Pendulums in her home town. Who Put The Blood (DWR002) is a record which exploits her beautiful voice and classical training, showcasing it alongside the noisy unkempt drumming of Neilson. One thing the record is trying to do is discover and expose ‘parallels’ between experimental noise, improvisation, and traditional folk music, a project Mr Neilson has been engaged with for some time. I personally have yet to be completely convinced about this line of thinking, but we can’t deny Neilson’s distinctive contributions to the 2005 LP No Earthly Man by Scots performer Alasdair Roberts. Besides being great to listen to (the voice of Roberts is unearthly), No Earthly Man is a fine record which has a very interesting take on notions of authenticity and continuity in the traditions of folk music, debates which have been occupying the minds of those in Cecil Sharp House for many decades. Accordingly on Who Put The Blood we hear their idiosyncratic and doom-laden version of Child Ballad 13 ‘Edward’, and we also hear Blackwall being prompted to turn in a free-form vocalising and wailing episode propelled by the manic drumming of Neilson. The latter experiment is clearly inspired by the Patty Waters LP for ESP-disk, something which has become a common touchstone for young minds everywhere these days, but it’s impressive how the classically-trained Blackwall doesn’t come a cropper at all and turns in a convincing bleat. I wish I could say the same for Neilson’s peculiar singing, but perhaps I will find his style is an acquired taste and concede that it adds a ‘rustic’ charm to the recording.
The ballad ‘Edward’ of course is known in many versions (including some American variants), and I’ve long wished to write an incisive essay that accounts for the existential gloom that this mysterious story exudes (like all good death ballads, it can be read as an unexplained detective story that dwells on the violence and anguish and doesn’t begin to solve the motive for the murder at all), and might somehow tell the tale of how we arrived at the version that was used as the soundtrack for the 1949 avant-garde film The Lead Shoes by the American visionary film-maker Sidney Peterson. When I first saw this astonishing film I was mystified for days by the unforgettable images, but also by the music, with its strange combination of unbalanced Dixieland jazz, wild drumming, and free-form vocalising that extemporises freely around the lyrical content of this ancient ballad. The credits don’t reveal much about how it came about, simply stating ‘Sound by The Three Edwards and a Raven’, but I recall reading that Peterson used the services of some enthusiastic college students. It’s not a random choice of music; the story of The Lead Shoes itself is a modern update on the same ballad, believe it or not. You can see this meisterwerk here and find out for yourself. At all events, perhaps this is an example of the same seam of commonality among musical forms, which Neilson is trying to mine.

RUIS MAGAZINE - download pdf
translated from Dutch: […] Another magical female voice on the second release by young London label Dancing Wayang. Whilst Alex Neilson still needed a host of guests for his spiritual improvisations, only the talent of Lavinia Blackwall shines in the background of “What Put The Blood”. In either case, they have created a brilliant LP.
The record is divided into a capella and sparsly accompanied traditional British folk songs and free improvisation with an excellent balance of drums, cello and harp.
All the goodness of Shirley and Dolly Collins, Patty Waters and Richard Youngs from their record collections melts into something that we already know will be part of our end of year list. (page 19)

ROCK-A-ROLLA Magazine - download pdf
Directing Hand's affinity with, and love for, original folk forms makes the sometimes overused free-folk tag a misnormer for this duo, despite their evident improvisational muscle. The tracks here are fiercly split between vocal-only readings, improv voyages and traditional folk songs set to sparse backings. But these songs aren't just excavated and displayed as they were first found. The narratives of the traditional re-tellings here inspire a desire to hear the conclusion of the tumbling tales, almost making the listener a silent participant of sorts. Notes spiral like revelatory mathematics / music patterns, Neilson's drumsticks slipping over the skins trying to pound out exactly what he needs to communicate. Elsewhere the harmonium drone and the blink-and-die firefly harp plucks of the title track move the song to a point irregardless of time. But the most powerful element here is Lavinia Blackwall's vocal, revealing its full flower across the LP. Spitting red one minute then starsailoring the sky on her way to somewhere beyond the next, it's a wonder Neilson managed to prevent himself from leaping over his drum kit to dash himself upon the rocks at her feet.

FOXY DIGITALIS - www.digitalisindustries.com
This four track disc may have only been released as a limited bonus disc with Directing Hand's recent "What Put the Blood" vinyl, but it's deserving of special attention. As half of the aforementioned Directing Hand (alongside free drummer and vocalist Alex Neilson), multi-instrumentalist Lavinia Blackwall is doing her part to blur the lines between the urge for unfettered expression and the energising of the traditional folk form. On this solo disc, she tenders two melancholy traditional English folk songs as well as two original pieces.
As a balance to Directing Hand's improv spirit, her path here seems to be more about the crafting, and telling, of song. Where some classical singers can retain a tone of frost around their vocal, Blackwall's soprano vocal gives a clarity to the notes and words that's gilded in melancholy. With the music forming a delicacy around her voice, the interleaving clock rhythm of the harp and the gentle guitar put skin on the lyrics of "Maid in the Moor". It feels like a pretty straight telling of the traditional song, even with the addition of Blackwall's original music. "The Cuckoo" on the other hand, even with its traditional lyric about an inconstant lover, sounds like a newly written original piece. Stripped to a lone voice and abandoned but steady piano, the songs feels at home as a 2007 composition. This is the exactly the type of leap that Directing Hand have been steadily making their own, albeit in a slightly different form. Where their improv work has used the interweaving of tradional melodies and sounds into layered emissions, Blackwall places the song firmly in the relevant present removing any signs of possible age from the song; the pain just as valid today as it was when first written.
Her two original tracks, "Green Planet" and "Cave of Cernunnos", make use of organ work faintly reminiscent of the kind of human pop of a gentler Stereolab. The style here is of a kind of well-constructed vintage very-lyrical and very melodic; like Current 93's more beautiful Tibet/Cashmore compositions. Boasting a gorgeous and subtle played early-springtime melody "Greenn Planet" is a perfect moment, an instantly enchanting song and a fine closing moment for this solo release. 9/10