Acoustic Ladyland bravely stuck their heads above the trenches five years ago and challenged the record labels, journos and enduring youth sub-cultures to positively change their perceptions of the jazzer with their debut Camouflage. They brought energy, youth and musical abandon to the table and are still giving it large with their brand of jazz/punk on fourth album Living With A Tiger.
A jazz band that’s cool and hip could never be called a new concept - once upon a time jazz was considered popular music, until the record labels went to bed with rock n roll and had a fling with electric guitars, lavishing vast sums of money on their new play things and reinvented the music business in the process. Jazz hasn’t really had a proper look-in ever since.
RealMusic Blog knows a thing or two about cool, edgy and happening as well as dull, samey and passé, and this album lies somewhere in-between because while it ain’t revolutionary, it is refreshing in a no-girl-synth-pop-to-be-found-anywhere kinda way. It incorporates instrumentation associated with jazz such as sax, drums, guitar and bass, but it never really reaches the emotional summit of punk, rock or even jazz per se, which is a shame because understandably it’s not easy to package an eight-minute jazz track into a three-minute rock song.
We’re sure individually the likes of Seb Rochford and Pete Wareham - drums and saxophones respectively - are great players with even greater ideas, but here they’re reduced to either peddling out 2-tone era Madness licks minus the witty lyrics or unconvincing free jazz interludes to compensate for lack of swagger - it might be interesting for one or two tracks but anything more is a challenge even for the sympathetic listener. The sax sound just grates and becomes a nuisance because it attempts to take the place of the singer and it’s difficult to fancy a saxophone. The best bits are when the sax can let rip in the traditional sense and solo without having to worry about carrying the song’s melody.
In any case most of this will go over the casual listeners head should they be bothered to go past track three - the title track Living With A Tiger - and end up on the bottom of a pile of dusty CDs. So yes, there are some ferocious moments; but no, we won’t be inviting the overgrown cat home for tea and biscuits, although we suspect live Acoustic Ladyland are an altogether different type of beast.
Acoustic Ladyland’s Living With A Tiger is out on July 6th
(Andrew John)
