Jim Moray

The man who took traditional English music and joined the dots up to the 21st century. His debut album Sweet England won the Best Album at the 2004 Radio2 folk awards. He produced, recorded and largely performed the whole thing, and he's still in his early twenties.

Sweet England is a collection of traditional English ballads stunningly re-interpreted in their arrangements. Much fanfare was made of his use of electric instruments, samples and effects. this in itself is nothing new - Martyn Benett was doing arguably far more radical work in the nineties. What makes Jim Moray different is the way he has transformed the ballads from their dusty and neglected state into a set of sparkling and exciting tracks. Early One Morning is the best example, we all remember it from music lessons at school and of course from Frank Spencer singing it in Some Mothers Do Have Them. Surely enough to condemn it to a well deserved grave. Moray bravely tackles it as his first track. He transforms it into something tender and beautiful.

Moray's work is deep, he never simply slaps some beats over a melody. His source material is reworked from the inside out, in that process he get's to the underlying truth and lays it before your eyes. I'd argue with his labelling as techno-folk; just because it's put together on a computer and has samples doesn't mean it's techno in the dance friendly leanings of say the Peatbogs or some of Martyn Bennets work.

The revolution in his approach is the simple truth that folk music can be re-interpreted, and indeed it should be. Better to participate and play with our heritage than preserve it and stick it in a museum. Surely this is how it will grow and live on for the future.

His Latest album Jim Moray takes the building blocks of Sweet England and expands upon the themes in a cinematic manner. The first single is a 6 minute opus My Sweet Rose.

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