Stick In The Wheel’s latest work, A Thousand Pokes, is a rebellious fusion of ancient traditions and East London’s gritty modernity. Centuries-old folk music collides with the raw energy of the city’s electronic undercurrents.
Their fourth studio album is a bold, satirical carnival, gleefully lampooning the world’s myriad flaws. Set against a backdrop of global chaos—corruption, political unrest, and uncertainty—it’s a joyfully anarchic response to the sheer absurdity of the present moment.
The album is a modern-day charivari—Rough Music, in the old sense—a raucous, public shaming of the world’s ills. Nicola Kearey and Ian Carter throw us into a whirlwind of chaos, calling up the spirits of 14th-century demons, nursery rhymes twisted into dark threats, and vivid scenes of historic London.
Imagine women ambushing wealthy merchants, nettles being urinated on, and Lent’s miserable culinary offerings—all woven together in a biting critique of power gone wrong. This isn’t your quiet, pastoral folk; it’s music that stalks the streets like Jack The Ripper in the Whitechapel district of London.
Kearey’s lyrical storytelling holds a mirror to society’s worst, narrated with a biting wit that feels distinctly London. She can coax you in with warmth or throw you into a verbal brawl, her delivery as unpredictable as the city itself.
In “Lavender,” one of the album’s few moments of respite, Kearey breathes life into one of London’s oldest street melodies, momentarily lifting us from the chaos. The album’s very title nods to Tittivilus, the medieval demon who collects the idle gossip of flawed humanity—Kearey’s muse, perhaps, as she captures our mistakes and holds them up for all to see.
Ian Carter’s instrumental mastery adds another layer to this urban folk tapestry. His dobro guitar shifts effortlessly from delicate, baroque-inspired lacework to thuggish, distorted riffs that feel as if they’re ripped straight from a London garage.
His chimeric style supports the heavy, rhythmic drive that is a signature of Stick In The Wheel’s sound. Tracks like “Crystal Tears” and “Steals The Thief” bookend the album with hypnotic drones and psychedelic guitar flourishes, reflecting the noisy, multicultural blend of the streets they call home.
This album imagines a London where the city’s music has never been silenced—where it survived the bombings of World War II, outlived gentrification, and soaked up every influence from the diverse communities that continue to define it.
Carter and Kearey recorded this defiant soundscape in some of the city’s most storied locations: the atmospheric George Tavern in Whitechapel, Denis Severs’ House in Spitalfields, and an old weaver’s townhouse.
But it was in an old factory, and eventually their own workshop, that the album truly came to life. The resulting sound is raw, lean, and unapologetic, a sonic representation of London itself: unfiltered, harsh, and bursting with character. It’s a work that demands to be heard—loud, fierce, and utterly present.
Stick In The Wheel has crafted an album that is a living, breathing embodiment of London’s musical past, present, and future.
It’s a love letter to the city’s resilience, a reminder that despite everything—wars, upheavals, and forced change—London’s music scene remains a vital, unbroken continuum. And like the city it reflects, the album is layered, complex, and impossible to ignore. Enjoy!
Check out A Thousand Pokes by Stick In The Wheel on Bandcamp here.
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