CD Review: Match & Fuse (No.4) World Service Project & Tribraco

Dave Morecroft’s developing project – Match & Fuse - introduces Italian band Tribraco. A four piece (two guitarists, bassist and drummer) formed in 2004 features on two tracks on the latest limited edition CD (no.4 in the series). 

The Human Cannonball (comp. Lorenzo Tarducci) confounds expectations with an opening Western swing feel (tight drumming by Tommaso Moretti) then perplexes the listener with an un-credited soprano saxophonist entering the fray (guitarists Tarducci and Dario Cesarini use loops/effects but surely don’t imitate a horn player?) Sergente di Ferro further confounds expectations (no bad thing) with a brooding sub-Zeppelin Euro rock workout (Moretti impressing once more in tandem with bassist Valerio Lucenti). 

Tribraco’s two tracks on this sampler CD (one very different to the other) encourage further investigation of the band’s recorded output. A better bet – check them out at a gig. World Service Project’s two tunes reaffirm the quintet’s credentials as subversive, challenging, committed pranksters. You get the riff, you’re into the groove…stop that, let’s go this way. The Screamer opens with drummer Neil Blandford in rockabilly mode, ‘bone man Raph Clarkson gurgles and in no time at all (Zorn Time) its Ska time, all-together-now lunacy, Morecroft’s modal Fender Rhodes and a solo contribution from bassist Conor Chaplin before the band take it out. Change the Fucking Record (listen to it and you’ll get the joke) jumps to Tim Ower’s tenor saxophone and Clarkson’s consistently good trombone work. 

A bonus track features an earlier Match & Fuse collaboration between WSP and Berlin trio Schulbus. World Service Project and Tribraco are currently touring the UK. 

Tonight (Wednesday 11 April) get along to Basingstoke (The Haymarket @ Anvil Arts www.anvilarts.org.uk), Thursday 12 April the bands roll up at the Vortex, London (www.vortexjazz.co.uk) and on Friday 13 April Birmingham (The Drum, Potters Lane, Aston www.the-drum.org.uk) gets a chance to hear the Match & Fuse project.

Russell