The Eccentronic Research Council
1612 Underture
Release Date: Sep 18, 2012
Genre(s):
Record label: Finders Keepers
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Album Review: 1612 Underture by The Eccentronic Research Council
Very Good, Based on 2 Critics
Based on rating 3.5/5
“People still have to do bad things to eat,” says Maxine Peake at one point on 1612 Underture. Likening today’s hardships to those of four centuries ago, she describes a group of women in her native Lancashire who were persecuted and hanged for witchcraft. Peake, a TV actress known for the legal drama Silk and The Red Riding Trilogy, has lobbied for an adaption of the Pendle witch trials for years, and in the absence of finding a sympathetic producer, has teamed up with I Monster (a.k.a.
Opinion: Excellent
Throughout the 17th century, witch-hunt fever was spreading virulently through the UK. Remote communities, once infected, turned in upon themselves and burned up. The lousy fate of some of these women – usually traditional herbalists or healers – was only matched by the outlandishness of the claims made against them. In Bideford in 1682, Temperance Lloyd was accused of practicing witchcraft, with one specific charge referring to her "discourse" with the Devil who had adopted the shape of a black man.