Us & Them really deliver the goods with this stupendous four song EP of Paul Giovanni covers taken from the soundtrack of an early 70s cult movie from Britain called ‘The Wicker Man’….Quite simply, along with Kes, one of the best films ever made and easily THEE best soundtrack.

It must have been an impossible task to reproduce the brilliance of Giovanni’s original acid-folk songs but Us & Them really capture the macabre sounds and eerie mood of them all. The perfect musicianship and the addition of mellotron and dulcimer into the mix create brilliant new interpretations of ‘Corn Rigs’, ‘Gently Johnny’, ‘Fire Leap’ and ‘Willow’s Song’.

The record was at first released in the usual Fruits de Mer quantity of 500. These sold out within a week, so an additional 200 copies were pressed which also sold out immediately. The label design shows a psychedelicalized picture of the famous Alan Wicker…ha ha ha…hilarious.

Just send us a mail on us_and_them@ymail.com if you’re interested.

Here’s a thing. I like to think of myself as an undying advocate of the “it’s it ain’t broke” principle, so the notion of having songs from Paul Giovanni’s exalted score for The Wicker Man re-recorded by, harrumph, some JOHNNY-COME-LATELIES initially struck me as sacrilegious at worst and pointless at best.

Man, what do i know? Turns out that this limited edition coloured vinyl EP, recorded by Swedish acid-folk duo Us and Them (Britt and Anders) with the assitance of mellotron maestro Frobisher Neck (Tony Swettenham) weaves much the same quizzical spell as the film itself, and, particularly in the case of ‘Willow’s Song’, actually out-lovelies the original version. Also tackled are ‘Corn Rigs’, ‘Fire Leap’ and ‘Gently Johnny’ with a dignified guest vocal from Ludvig Josephson; valid, delicate and persuasive all, but Britt’s vocal on this version of ‘Willow’s song’ would have you chowing your way through that bedroom wall with your bare teeth

If you will join us send a mail to us_and_them@ymail.com

We will play two short set: one acustic with our own songs and one with the Wickerman songs. There will be a bar, music in the spirit of The Wickerman and a lot of fantastic people.

First is Willow’s song. Please take a dear friend in your hand when you watch it.

….and the last one, Fire Leap, where the central character try a bit more peaceful way to save the apple harvest than the one they use in The Wickerman film.