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| Acoustic Ladyland - Living With A Tiger **** |
| Thursday, 16 July 2009 12:28 | |||||||
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Strong & Wrong SAW0001 | Pete Wareham (ts), Chris Sharkey (g), Ruth Goller (el b) and Seb Rochford (d). Rec. date not stated On Acoustic Ladyland’s fourth CD to date things have shifted about a bit. Out go the snarling indie punk vocals and the jittery electronic keyboards. In come the abrasive, yet atmospheric alternative guitar sonic riffery of new member Chris Sharkey (who replaces keys player Tom Cawley). But everything else is fully intact including the kind of infectious, epic sax tune-led writing that made second CD Last Chance Disco so memorable. Ending their link with the majorbacked V2 label, this one goes out on leader-composer-tenor saxophonist Pete Wareham’s own recording imprint. Sharkey is better known for his effects-contorted oblique noise improv in bands such as Trio VD and the Geordie Approach but here he stays close to more conventional rock song harmony. Add to that new bassist Ruth Goller and drummer Seb Rochford’s tight combustible unit, and in spite of Wareham’s sax taking on the role of lead vocalist, this recording brings Acoustic Ladyland closer to avant-improv rock bands such as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Deerhoof, the type of bands that have added fuel to Wareham’s raging fire over the past few years. In this respect Living With A Tiger may be harder work for the more specialised jazz listener than previous CDs. However, Wareham’s rasping Ayler-esque intensity, his aggressive John Zorn-like gesturing and his flexibility with tone and timbre are entirely in the jazz spirit. The poignant tribute to the birth of his son Quincy, ‘The Mighty Q’ with its highly-charged, ominous air and chiming Radiohead-type guitar atmospherics, touches on new ground possibly pointing at things to come. ‘Worry’ also has a more melancholic strain, a Jim Morrisonlike melody and initially sounds something like New York drummer Jim Black’s Alas No Axis, before heading off into a typically dense squealing, thrash punk climax, while ‘You and I’ is a platform for some of Sharkey’s angular Beefheartisms. Jazz or no jazz, the godfathers of the new, new wave are sounding better than ever. Selwyn Harris
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