NEW MUSIC: FLASHMAN (LEMON JELLY + BETA BAND)

‘To The Victor – The Spoils!’, the first release of Flashman aka Fred Deakin of Lemon Jelly and Robin Jones of the Beta Band, came out a couple of weeks ago.

I was a huge fan of Lemon Jelly’s inspired sampling and the all-round joie de vivre of their albums; and some of The Beta Band’s early folky sounds have a gentle loveliness, so was really interested in this. But also concerned that it would be less than the sum of its parts. They call it “an improvised jazz-folk odyssey” which is pretty worrying, since the words ‘jazz’ and ‘improvised’ are ones that should never appear in the same sentence. In the event, it’s not the freeform jazz mess I feared, neither is it the 4/5 star rating it received from the Sunday Telegraph. It’s just unstructured, with a mix of jazziness and lo-fi electronics and … a bit dull. Who’d have thought that?

Flashman – ‘The Proposition’

PR Blurb: Flashman: To the Victor – the Spoils!  ‘Flashman’ is a collaborative musical project by Fred Deakin (Lemon Jelly / Airside) and Robin Jones (The Beta Band / The Aliens). The group’s debut album ‘To the Victor – the Spoils!’, released by Impotent Fury is now available exclusively at Airside Play. Described as “jazz-folk-techno”, the chapters of ‘To the Victor – the Spoils!’ were recorded at the Sound Café studios in Nine Mile Burn, the heart of the Scottish countryside. With Jones tearing up the drums, and Deakin on electronics and a multitude of other instruments, the Flashman cause is interwoven with stellar guest performances from jazz piano legend Brian Kellock, clarinetist Wally Fawkes (The Humphey Lyttleton Band), Laura Bettinson (Dimbleby and Capper) and trumpet extremist Andy Diagram (James / Pale Fountains / Shack / Spaceheads). Flashman’s debut release by Impotent Fury is officially on sale from February 14th 2011. However 400 advance copies are now available to buy at Airside Play: http://play.airside.co.uk/

~ by acidted on March 2, 2011.