Album Review

The Voodoo Trombone Quartet – Dress Down Friday

• 29th Jun 2012

Brass sections do something funny to us here at Glasswerk. We just can’t help but love them, especially when they’re used in completely off kilter and surprising ways. Imagine our delight then, when we popped The Voodoo Trombone Quartet’s record into the stereo and were met with the lo-fi electro indie pop of opening track “Hello! Who Are You?” with its lead melody hook played entirely on the brass section. This stomping, feel good hit rolls euphorically along and it’s only when you get to the end of the song that you realise it’s been an entirely instrumental track, such is the skill of the musicians and songwriters here.

The easy summer funk of ‘Ripples’ is a particular highlight, providing the perfect soundtrack for those hazy summer afternoons. The sunshine disco beats that push through on every track wouldn’t sound out of place on a golden era hip hop record, showing true talent in this distinctive and individual eight piece’s brass section, as they drop in and out of the lazy funk beats flawlessly. The samba dance hall of ‘Time Keeps Crawling’ is another example of the genre-splicing approach to music that The Voodoo Trombone Quartet seem to specialise in; a trippy, rhythmic and pulsating bass/piano line punctuated by Specials-esque horns. That a band from the UK are producing such inspired, earthy and wordly music should give us all hope that our scene isn’t quite dead yet.

Lemon Jelly, Mr Scruff and RJD2 fans will adore this slice of funked up summer jazz, marked out from the crowd by some clever arrangements and a solid melting pot of musical genres – there’s real freedom of expression in the melodies and ideas that makes this record a joy from start to finish.