Adam
Stapleford (drums), Jamie Stockbridge (alto saxophone) & Mike Parr-Burman
(guitar)
(Review
by Russell).
Mammatus, the opening
track of five on Taupe’s eponymous release, begins with a
guess-where-this-is-going series of bass-end notes from Mike Parr-Burman’s
guitar. Drummer Adam Stapleford hides a crunching snare under a canopy of
splashing cymbals as Jamie Stockbridge’s alto emerges from the dense
undergrowth blinking into the daylight, an insistent riff taking command. Carnival’s Quarrel takes a tightly loose guitar intro into a
rasping alto blowout, Coupling
requires a First Degree in Counting such is its quirky time signature!
Clattering drums and Salt Peanuts-like
tooting suggest an element of fun is present in the trio’s collective thinking.
The penultimate track - Lash - is the one. This is impressive
stuff - the writing and the playing. Stockbridge’s urgent alto fires-up guitar
and drums in a hair-raising joyride to who knows where, taking corners at speed
for the thrill of it. Out of breath, alto takes it down, the others having none
of it, foot on the accelerator and off they go again! The closing number - Beads - was surely composed aboard the eerie
Marie Celeste. Shrouded in a fog, drifting, dissolving into silence. Taupe is one of the releases of 2014.
The trio describe themselves as Newcastle
Russell.
1 comment :
Wow! Thanks for the kind words - glad you enjoyed it.
Jamie
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