| CD Review - The Blue Book Project - Sometimes We Press Record… The Bootleg Sessions |
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9 Track CD |
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Review by Dappy |
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I often think that the most interesting music is a distillation of the most interesting influences: think Radiohead's passion for 20th Century Classical music or the eclectic and disparate sounds on Beck's "Odelay" and you realise that it's when musicians assimilate sounds from outside of their primary sound-world that the most exciting music is created.
It comes as a surprise in such a culturally isolated place as Lincoln that a band has managed to pull in influences from the furthest reaches of the globe.
The Blue Book Project's first "official" 9 track EP "Sometimes We Press Record … The Bootleg Sessions" presents the listener with a calming coupling of African-influenced sounds and slow-funk jams. It's mix of ethnic sounds and rhythms grounded in a Euro-American setting recalls Damon Albarn's "Mali Music" album with Afel Bocoum and the chilled-out electronic meanderings of Four Tet.
The trippy "Sometimes We Feel Like An Intro …" provides a suitable opener and sign-post, directing the listener through the obscurely titled instrumentals that make up the rest of the album. It also ably illustrates the way the Project manage to avoid the many pot-holes that can result from this type of musical journey - ie. the same musical ideas repeated ad infinitum and long, pointless, meandering guitar solos. They manage to keep the tracks short enough to avoid the self-indulgence that often afflicts instrumental-based bands and, whilst they sometimes let themselves go - as on the 6 minute long "Directions Are Important", they more often than not show that they have the ability to know when an idea is exhausted and when to move on. If anything, the songs are often too short.
The album is well produced but sounds like it has been recorded in two places. Whilst tracks like "Hangles" have a studio-like sheen to them, others, such as "Directions Are Important" sound like they have been recorded live, the guitar slightly too loud and messy.
This is a summery album from a band with a clear vision of what they want to sound like. The playing is not showy but reassured and measured, more about creating an atmosphere than blinding the audience with guitar runs.
In my opinion, the best bits on the album occur when the Book's
stay away from the Pink-Floyd-esque slow-funk of their slower tracks
and either settle in to the lively African groove of "Kershaws
Malerial Drive" or take on a more experimental edge, as
they do on the atmospheric and didgeridoo-(I think)-driven "Igawata"
and "Wolf Craft". The listener's ignorance of the
instruments used - listen to the multi-layered "Hangles"
and try and identify them all! - also adds to the appeal of one
of the most interesting and assured releases by a Lincoln-based
band that I have heard.
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This page was last updated Monday, 11 January 2010
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