Labels: Jade Tree Records
Review by: Andy Malcolm
I can’t believe I took so long to get this record, it’s absolutely brilliant. Initially put off by suggestions that Jade Tree had put out a rather dull instrumental record, I left it on the shelf. Then I started reading the reviews. People who like the same stuff as me were giving this a lot of credit. I generated a bit of cash by flogging some bad CD’s (reviews of which can be found in the archive, rating most of them at 8 out of 10, how times change) that I didn’t listen to any more to “Ray’s” of Norwich where he’d later markup the price by 300%, and then I went into another record shop and bought the Euphone LP. Hurrah!
So what does it sound like? Quite a lot of things really. Sometimes it reminds me of Pele. Sometimes it makes me think of Joan of Arc if Kinsella (T) had been shot dead and they didn’t get around to replacing him (calm down! I can hear some people cheering. He hasn’t really been shot you cruel, heartless, oafs). Other times it’s like the soundtrack to a 60’s spy film, but not Austin Powers. Far too subtle for that. The album is all tasteful blips and bleeps and miscellaneous instruments and background noises and nice flowing repetetive tunes and some funny samples and Kinsella (T) never comes on and goes “Thanks for Chicago Mr. James” so you can all rest easily. Man, I hate that song. There’s even a track which probably would have served pretty well as the backdrop for Take Hart’s “Viewers Gallery” thing. Guess the kids age! And all that. Sorry if you are not from the UK, as I am discriminating against you by introducing that little cultural reference. It’s not that funny anyway, so don’t worry.
Look, this is great. You probably should only ever listen to it at 3am, but that’s by the by. Top notch, although you can’t listen to this quiet stuff forever. So I’m off to listen to Swing Kids now. Toodlepip!