Woodpecker Wooliams – The Bird School Of Being Human [Robot Elephant Records]

I’m crushing so hard on this right now. Woodpecker Wooliams‘ album ‘The Bird School Of Being Human’ is utterly gorgeous and on its fifth or tenth time round the headphones, I’ve lost count. I’ve lost my senses and bearings to its thrall too. I’m lying in bed but willingly jarred wide awake as I try to decipher it. No, not the words (they’ll come) but the emotion. It’s voices from a sepia photograph; clicks, buzzings and whirring. Dreams that erupt into languages never before heard; like being lost in several films at once.

It all started for me only a few days ago with a song going by the name of ‘Sparrow’ which had me from the opening chords. Are they chords when it’s lumpy noise as dirty as a choppy sea off Brighton, these days the nest for this particular Woodpecker? It was as a fairground, channelled through a gashed Marshall cab, and my pulse raced when Gemma’s voice kicked in, high enough pitched to cause pain to cats. How can something just the right side of chalk scraping on a blackboard be suddenly so sweet and satisfying?

Debate has raged, for I have forced this music on those around me. Is it more like the crunchy peanut butter cousin of CocoRosie, or Joanna Newsome with tunes? No, neither. There’s whimsy and quirk and this isn’t it. ‘Quirky’ sounds like some northern comic, this is woozy and freak-some, and at the same time charming. Charm that’s entirely likely to turn round without any provocation whatsoever and snarlingly demand “what are you looking at; give me my goddam cup of tea” 

We’re told the story of how Gemma took herself to the seaside to recuperate from some unspecified “sudden and severe” illness, and once there, took up the harp. A rented harp whilst waitressing take note – that speaks of a direction in life, an intention. Thank the gods that she came to the conclusion pretty quickly that her foray into straight and uncluttered folk was a mis-step. We don’t need more of those thanks. Gemma transformed instead into a human woodpecker, making music that scratches and claws its way into the sound of thunder clouds, only to find all the time it was the tin sheeting of the barn roof. “Mental, horrible, distorted noise” says the woman who trained as a nurse and midwife.

We’ll allow the bird references, the frame of reference that these are the songs of a Crow, Dove, Gull, Hummingbird, Magpie, Red Kite and Sparrow attempting to learn the ways of woman and man. But this is no children’s story – instead the talk is about Facebook and the night he (whoever that might be) smashed her face in.

It’s easily on my (very) short list for album of the year so far. Woodpecker Wooliams has been around musically since 2009 or so, gigging across Europe, putting out tracks, one of these tellingly on a Willkommen compilation. However this appears to be her debut ‘album’ as such, and for once the word is used correctly.

If your interest is piqued, there’s a handful of live dates

September 7th – London, album lauch show
September 8th – Brighton, album launch show
September 12th – London, The Strongrooms
October 2nd – London, The Gallery Cafe
October 9th – Bristol

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