![]() Sandy showcases Denny spreading her stylistic wings. They date from 19, with the first of them, The North Star Grassman and the Ravens, seeing Denny mix mostly originals with three cover versions, her clear pure voice landing sprightly atop piano-led folk-pop – and the incongruously jolly rock’n’roll of “Let’s Jump the Broomstick”. The Sandy Denny albums are her initial two solo after experimenting with her own new band, Fotheringay, upon leaving Fairport Convention. Three albums from two of the most distinctive female singers of the latter half of the twentieth century. Sandy Denny The North Star Grassman and the Ravens (Island) + Sandy Denny Sandy (Island) + Bobbie Gentry The Girl From Chickasaw County (Universal) “Humanity's been pawned for greed,/Immured by warring surplus value thieves.” Yes, indeed. “Hues of Red” is the catchy stand-out, coming on like a Leninist Manhattan Transfer. The lyrics to “Brumaire” are opaque but presumably refer to the end of the French Republic in 1799 while “1905” is a more direct reference to the Russian uprisings of that year, to a tootling soundtrack. ![]() In fact, these chugging analogue grooves are as much funky easy listening as disco, but they do boast low-in-the-mix male and female singing, redolent of the stylised end of Eighties/Nineties Brit indie (Saint Etienne, The Divine Comedy, etc) about the proclaimed subject matter. The idea is that their music combines the joy of disco with the joy of the rise of the proletariat against the ruling class. They come from Bologna and their debut album is possibly the work of one producer. There’s not much information about Marxist Love Disco Ensemble. Marxist Love Disco Ensemble MLDE (Mr Bongo) Running in parallel to the sort of music Shabaka Hutchings gets up to, Edrix Puzzle push into realms of both the freaky-danceable and free jazz threat, with a dose of pure head-frying out-there thrown in for good measure. With his core team of Martin Slattery (clarinet/sax), Tom Mason (double bass) and Oli Savill (percussion), Curran takes care of drums and the electronic aspect, with occasional visits by violinist Darren Berry adding another layer of alien otherness, especially on Side B Track 1 (don’t know what it’s called as the sleeve appears to be wrong, indicating a track without violin). In fact, it goes bananas in the best way. That album laid out the bones but Coming of the Moon Dogs goes the whole hog. Curran has taken a stab at this before with his 2020 album Trans Neptunia under the moniker Planet Battagon. No, it’s a demented attempt to weld the fringes of jazz to retro sci-fi, psychedelia and electronics. Unlike Hong Kong Phooey, though, it’s not a canine crime-fighter cashing in on a global craze for martial arts. Ah, but like Hong Kong Phooey before him, he has an alter-persona that will surprise. Nathan Curran is an in-demand session drummer for the likes of everyone from Elton John to Kano.
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