VIDEO PREMIERE: LUNATRAKTORS - UNQUIET GRAVE
Lunatraktors Release ‘Unquiet Grave’ video
This Ash Wednesday, Margate’s DIY ‘broken folk’ duo Lunatraktors have released their new video - a starkly political re-working of British traditional song ‘The Unquiet Grave’.
This gives a taste of Lunatraktors’ new direction for second album The Missing Star. Released on May Day 2021, The Missing Star is the follow-up to their much more minimal debut This Is Broken Folk, which was listed in MOJO Magazine’s Top Ten Folk Albums of 2019.
Unquiet Grave
The Lunatraktors version of Unquiet Grave tells the story of Elaine Christian, who committed suicide in 2011 rather than face her next 'Fit to Work' assessment. It is adapted from a traditional folksong called The Unquiet Grave (c.1400?) about a person who cannot let go of their dead lover, and two songs from the late 1800s which echo it.
Both are laments about fatal industrial accidents: The Blantyre Explosion, about a Scottish mining disaster in 1877; and Lost Jimmy Whalen, about the death of an Ontario logger called James Phalen in 1878. The melody is probably descended from an older slow air for the Scottish Borders small pipes. The 'dark swirling waters' resonate with much older Gaelic myths of the underworld.
The Lunatraktors are Clair Le Couteur (Vocals, Melodica, Whistle, Analogue Synth) and Carli Jefferson (Vocals, Tonal Percussion, Bowed Cymbal).
The band said: “The Conservative Party's 'Austerity' programme of cuts to public health and social services removed the safety net for hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people in the UK. One study estimates the ongoing casualties from these cuts at 100 deaths a day.
“As part of Austerity, assessments for sick pay were outsourced to private companies, who paid non-medical personnel to deny benefits to seriously ill and disabled people – money they needed to live. But beyond the budget cuts, it was an intentionally-created 'hostile environment' that killed people. Treating people like they had no right to ask for help, even with their doctor’s approval. Treating people as though they should be ashamed.
“Elaine Christian was a direct casualty of these decisions, as was her husband, who took his own life the following year. It has been suggested that Austerity contributed to over 120,000 preventable deaths between 2010 and 2017. The consequences are ongoing: deprivation, poverty and cuts to essential services are behind the UK's 'world-leading' COVID death rate. Rather than replace the money cut from public institutions, billions in COVID emergency funding have instead been given to private companies – many with links to Conservative party members and donors.”