Having authentically nailed the sound of 60s/ 70s giallo and spaghetti western soundtracks on first LP, The Black Stone Affair, and 60s exotica on Palace Of A Thousand Sounds, their second, Nevada’s Whatitdo Archive Group clearly cast around for a way to satisfy their library music hunger before album number three. Enter an allegedly Christmas-themed 45 featuring a tribute to the global human archetype of the primeval hairy man entitled Wild Man and – er – a cover of Greensleeves frequently attributed to petulant lairy man Henry VIII – but actually nothing to do with him at all. So the Christmas link? Well, the ‘hairy man’s incarnations besides the Yeti, Bigfoot and Robert Holdstock’s Urscamug include St Nick’s terrifying central European sidekick the Krampus. Meanwhile, it turns out Greensleeves, has been associated with Crimbo since at least 1686 when new lyrics were spliced with the instro. In Whatitdo Archive’s capable hands it becomes an Ethio-jazz tinged slice of cinematic soul while the band’s original Wild Man is a livelier, funkier but equally cinematic affair.
(Out now on Record Kicks)
