The Baker Boys - Piedmont Log Rolling
Father and son play beautiful old english folk ballads (with a Norwegian twist?) on guitar and ukelele, accompanied occasionally by a lady also of the Baker clan: a real family affair. Even the sepia-toned artwork with old photos and adverts is by a Baker! They list all the original sources including Slim Dusty and English Folk Dance and Song Society. Its a complete package, and a lovely one at that.
Kluster B: Patton
This EP is now sold out, which is not suprising as its very good, but a shame for those who missed out: you'd better look out for new releases by Kluster B. The tracks seemed to be themed around World War Two: the cover comes from sections of old maps of France (my copy has a bit of Normandy judging by the names, and a circle pencilled around Izel-les-Hameau); the first track is portentiously titled 1937 and the title track has a movie sample I'm sure others will know, featuring an American general briefing his troops for battle with the Nazis. I particularly like the Torque remix of this track, so look out for Torque too.
Thanks Alan and Bearos!
http://www.bearos.co.uk/ www.myspace.com/bearosrecords
Coronary Crumpage 3, The Montague Arms SE15
Having very much enjoyed Coronary Crumpage 1, and having the opportunity of a Thursday night free (and not being bothered to treck up to 93 Feet East for some electronica while the East London Line is closed), Duncan and I dropped in to the Montague for some more Crumpage. This time's flyer looked a the drawings from Duncan's Bone Reverie book. We didn't know any of the bands - Normal Gimbal, The Final Terror and Fulborn Teversham - but members of Acoustic Ladyland and Polarbear were mentioned. In fact it was more like the same band with people coming and going: Normal Gimbal had the woman who seems to be kind of partly running things (who might be called Alice/Alison) and another girl who was the bass player in The Final Terror; Also in TFT was a saxophonist and drummer who also were in Fulborn Teversham with the first singer; keeping up? It seems that the saxophonist and drummer are both from Polarbear and 'Ladyland. Is there some relevance to the FT initials?
We both quite liked the NG songs; I thought there were a bit samey with more than a nod to Bjork, but pretty nonetheless and nice harmonies. I really liked Final Terror, Duncan less so but still liked them; such musicianship without being pretentious. They reminded me a bit of Morviscous, although funkier and heavier. The guitarist pulled some slightly off-putting soloing faces but played a bit like Tom Morello. The bass player was fast and hard with a metallic timbre in a late 70s/early 80s vein. Rochford the drummer is in a special class: funky and hard. At the front was a great sax player who was fond of effects, but sometimes I think he twiddled the knobs a bit too much. They played an very tight and intricate Messaien piece (or at least an interpretation), which really excited the crowd. All round impressive. I didn't stay for much of Fulborn Teversham. They were joined by a very nice keyboardist , who was - in Duncan's opinion, as I wasn't there - a good factor in the otherwise mediocre Invisibles, who played at Crumpage 1 and will headline next month. The Fulborn Teversham songs I saw were a bit warmer and more accessible than Final Terror and not unpleasant. I wasn't amazed, and I'm not sure about the singer, but all praise to them for putting on another great event.
Let's Get Lost Bruce Weber's film tribute to the jazzman Chet Baker has been rereleased and is in cinemas now, including the Barbican. Also on there this weekend is a Tribute to James Brown. www.barbican.org.uk
Next Thursday night at the Whitechapel looks like an interesting one (although lots of great things go on there). There is a film programme called In Media Res, plus the music and spoken word event Littlest Birds, featuring some people we know, including Rita Evans DJ set. www.whitechapel.org
