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It's not easy to get a fresh take on dance music,
but with this self-titled album it looks like
Rairbirds have come close to achieving it. In doing
that they occasionally overreach in their ambition,
but it's a relatively small price for the listener to
pay.
Quite apart from the first impressions of the
striking artwork from Lucy Vigrass, which blossoms in
the booklet, the opening salvo is daring in its scope.
The Rairbirds sing - briefly - and an atmospheric,
chromatic string line builds.
"I am out of my eyes", sings Kubb frontman
Harry Collier, the tension builds, and the
beats are prepared. When they finally drop the effect
is thrilling, an updated big beat that makes the
exhortation "blow wind blow" a powerful one.
After this hugely affirmative start comes Unknown,
a curate's egg of a track that lasts far longer than
it ought, with a decidedly weird central section where
it sounds like Just Jack has wandered into
Haight Street, got confused, and left again. All this
after a decidedly funky brass section have punched out
a memorable riff.
You get the picture - it's never dull. But part of
the accusation of over ambitious writing can be
leveled at the choice of personnel for the album. The
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra are here, with
the arrangements secured by vocalist Jamie
Crowe. It's thrilling stuff at times, with Crowe's
orchestration full of vivid moments, but occasionally
the juxtaposition of styles is just too crude.
Tigerag is fantastically wide open in its initial
outreach, but soon had me reminiscing, not at all
fondly, of the horror that was Rednex and
Cotton Eyed Joe. Even the thought of that brought me
out in a cold sweat, so for that Rairbirds should
receive a caution from the musical police.
Yet they should be let off just as quickly with a
friendly warning, as this record has much to commend
it in the way it refuses to be tied down and allocated
its own genre. Certainly it's a world away from Crowe
and Elton's previous efforts as funky rockers
Rootjoose.
They've moved on since then for sure, and thrown
everything at this venture on a brave voyage of
stylistic discovery. When it works the results are
startling, and when it doesn't the brain goes into
meltdown. Not an unconditional success then - but a
project well worth stopping to examine.
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