The Dance of Death (Dinked Edition #399)

Frankie Archer has exploded onto the electro folk scene with music that transcends stereotypes. Frankie has been featured on ‘Later... With Jools Holland’ and championed by tastemakers at BBC Radio 2 and BBC 6 Music. Following the release of her debut EP ‘Never So Red’ (November, 2023), she has supported the likes of The Futureheads and The Last Dinner Party on tour. On 'The Dance Of Death', Archer channels these experiences and reconstructs some of the oldest songs in the English canon with fractured, future-facing production. Working from archival ballads of obsession, devotion and loss, she warps fiddle lines, processes her own vocals and drives the material with pulsing drum machines and colourful synth arrangements. 

Co-produced with Guy Massey (Kylie Minogue, Spiritualized, Richard Hawley), the record expands English folk into something immersive and modern. Influenced by the work of Little Dragon, Hannah Peel, Rosalía, Björk and Bat for Lashes, Archer approaches folk as a producer first. Inspired by the medieval Danse Macabre, 'The Dance Of Death' is, in Archer’s words, “a collection of nu-ancient trad bangers” - stark narratives of mortality and longing rebuilt through meticulous studio experimentation.

Side A

1. Death and The Maiden 

2. The Dance of Death 

3. The Outlandish Knight 

4. In Brunton Town

Side B

5. The Unquiet Grave 

6. The Demon Lover 

7. Young Edwin of the Lowlands Low 

8. Oxford City 

9. The Lover’s Ghost