Monday, November 27, 2006

Acoustic Ladyland


Just when I thought I'd got all the essential albums of the year, and I could start spending my money on Christmas presents, another record hits me from leftfield. Well, not a whole record, but a band at least. It happened last Thursday I was listening to John Kennedy on Xfm talking to Pete Wareham from Acoustic Ladyland, and playing session tracks from the band .

As well as sax-player Pete, Acoustic Ladyland also features Seb Rochford and Tom Herbert amongst its number - and these three also comprise acclaimed modern jazz outfit Polar Bear (one of the token non-rock Mercury nominations a couple of years back). Acoustic Ladyland are jazz too, it seems. Now I don't know much about the genre, so I'm disinclined to comment too much, but this isn't jazz as I've heard. It's jazz fused with some kind of super-energetic post-punk. I'm not sure what it is about Saltwater, but I really like it - it's energy, it's craziness, the fact that it doen't follow structures. It's totally great, and could be worth the price of the album alone. The other track Glass Agenda isn't really much like it, and subsequently isn't nearly as good. But it's not bad. And if the album Skinny Grin is more of of the 'Saltwater type', it could be a classic.

Download: Acoustic Ladyland - Saltwater (Xfm session)
Download: Acoustic Ladyland - Glass Agenda (Xfm session)

Buy Skinny Grin

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