Unaccompanied harmony singing has always played a key role in the folk tradition, and the style is quite rightly back, with a vengeance. The deserved success of the Young ’Uns at this year’s BBC Radio 2 Folk awards was a reminder that a cappella vocals can be as exciting as any complex instrumental fusion, and the Teacups show how old songs can be transformed by four voices and imaginative new arrangements. They started singing together at Newcastle University, which they left last year, and have already established a distinctive, fresh and impressively varied style. Most of the songs are traditional, and range from an edgy murder story, Oxford City, to a Mississippi worksong and a scat-folk treatment of traditional dances. Then there’s a new song from Kate Locksley, a bleak history lesson from the Caribbean, and a poignant song of farewell, Journey’s End. All treated with subtle and exquisite harmony vocals.
