Tag: 2005

Forthcoming single, the psychedelic jangle-monster ‘For Your Bones’ is an artistic statement if ever I heard one. Their debut album Then We Begin puts the band in the same league as Echo & The Bunnymen or The Byrds and on more than equal pegging with the new generation of Liverpool bands like The Coral and The Zutons. Dreamy harmonies, chunky semi-acoustic guitars, spaced out tunes. If you like ’60s era Pink Floyd or early Stone Roses you will find something to love and cherish here. ‘Little Girl’ has a folky hypnotic magic only matched by The Byrds ‘Dolphin Smile’ or Lennon’s ‘Julia’ from The Beatles White Album. These talented twenty-somethings are going to be big news next year

Layer upon layer of guitars – this recalls The Who at their best – 4/5

I’ve been shaking my troos and stomping my shoes to this winner for the last week, (which hasn’t been off the Mondo Music Center since it’s first spin) and as much as I want to keep it a secret it’s just too funky to stay under my dude hat. Try and imagine Roy Budd, Brian Auger and Billy Preston making a three way tag team jamming on ‘Rollerball’ riffs, groovy synthscapes, hard and heavy Hammond exotica with bongo’s a go-go. Well, in fact you don’t have to – The Bongolian’s rolled it all into a ready made Psychedelic space age bundle for you. ‘A Psychedelic Trip To Outer Bongolia’ could be the long lost soundtrack to a retro-futurist Sci Fi flick, full of Funky nuggets like ‘The Champion’ ‘Feel It’ and the anthemic ‘All Aboard’. But don’t just take my word for what a sizzler it is – check out these two tunes. “

It seems to have taken the initiative of Pure Reason Revolution in teaching the kids that Pink Floyd records needn’t be concealed in a brown paper bag. With prog having long been a word not even the Collins Dictionary would touch, Alfa 9 don’t exactly embrace it in the same vein as PRR, but there are nods in that direction. Flourishing with a hazy, strong psychadelic edge that evokes images of smoky backstreet NYC dens and Led Zep freakouts, this track is an impressively confident debut

BLOW UP CLUB @ METRO, OXFORD ST, LONDON
A number of people who’s taste we know to be good have mentioned Alfa9 in recent weeks, the vine has been twitching – “never mind calling me up at this time in the morning asking how quickly I can get a pizza to you, how come you aren’t talking about Alfa9?” Time to take a look. Off down Oxford St for an early evening first on encounter at Metro (avoid that new pastie shop over the road people, not good, even after a beer or five, stick with the pizza place around the corner, they’re always outside giving out free samples, must be a secret service front, no one gives out free pizza that good). There’s not many in here, those who are, are kind of buzzing and firing those knowing secret service type glances at each other. Classic English rock with a large psychedelic edge, think Stone Roses (or maybe the better bits of Squire’s short lived and sometimes much loved Sea Horses), Woodstock period Who, Noel Gallagher style wall-of-guitar laced with astral-progressions and unfolding psychedelic britrock bite that’s rather good for your bones, oh and maybe a bit of Zeppelin tooooooo. Alfa9 are from Up North somewhere – that much is obvious, they rather like their 70’s psychedelic artwork and their Freakbeat look, yep, that’s also obvious – they’re not obvious though, they hint at things but it’s never obvious – we’ve seen a million tiresome Stone Roses/Oasis/Who flavoured wannabes, Alfa9 are a lot more than that. They have a swagger, not too cocky, it’s not a chip on the shoulder attitude thing, they just know.
The people in here know, yes indeed, they won’t be playing first on the bill in midweek half empty venues for long Get along now, listen to the twitching vine….

Highly-anticipated, long-awaited, or whatever other kind of looking forward to type of
descriptions you care to utilise, they all apply to Big Boss Man’s follow up album to their stunning debut offering Humanize. In defence of Nasser, Scott and Trevor, they have been busy. As in genuinely busy, what with various side-projects like The Bongolian and The Cookers for instance. They’ve also provided two remixes of non other than Paul Weller’s recent chart hit The Bottle. And that only scratches the surface -they’ve also been out on the road, performing live all over Europe. Winner picks up pretty much from where Humanize left off, melding funk and soul with a touch of Latino and boogaloo. For Big Boss Man, that period between the late 60s and early 70s, complete with all those Blaxploitation movies, lives on forever. Floor packers such as Kelvin Stardust and the simply, but descriptively titled Boogaloo and instant stand out cuts, but proving its not all about funky floor fillers, we also get diversity such as the Gaelic flavoured TuAsGache, the Latin spirit of Complicated Lady and the bongo
driven Everybody Boogaloo. Worth the wait? Definitely. As for the title, it’s both descriptive and apt, Winner is a real winner.

Anyone who’s a sucker for a Hammond organ – and what’s not to like, frankly – will love this breakneck trip through Sixties funk, boogaloo, Latin soul and French beat by the self-styled ‘punks of Hammond funk’, Big Boss Man. With an authentically dirty air
throughout, the album – the band’s second – was produced by the band and Morgan Nicholls, whose previous production credits include The Streets.

3 STARS

After what’s been a pretty manic touring schedule since their debut, Humanize, the tricksters that make up Big Boss Man resume their psychedelic trip of a musical journey that takes us back to the 60s once more, infusing the dirty funk sound the boys have become synonymous with, with lacings of Bongo (Everybody Boogaloo) and sexy French fondlings (Tu As Gache), among a host of other kooky influences. This is an album that oozes sexiness, whether it persuades you to abandon yourself on the dancefloor, or indulge in a heavy petting session in some discreet nook.