l l fillVAl
LE WEEKEND
Tolbooth, Stirling, Fri 29-Sun 31 May
A dubstep éllll‘.l headlining at a left lreld musrr, ll:'.ll‘./(ll may have rome about by £l(.(,l(il:.’ll. but the appearance of .la//stepper and the Moody Hoy/ a'. the «losing ar,t ot this year's l e Weekend leutrval is as mur,h ol a coup as ll l‘, an eye opener, lhrow in a collatmratron between l’ortishead guitarist Adrian lltley and Mount Vernon Arts 1 ab's retro tuture sonrr, er igrnrm llrew Mulholland, veteran llllj)l()\/|‘.l:l Keith Howe. ()arla [lo/ulteh's l vangelrsta and a tribute to lheolonrus Monk and alter 1? years, I e Weekend". already broad church looks like its opening up even more.
.Ja//stepper and the Moody Hoy/ stepped into the breach lollowrng the last rnrnute canr;e|latron ot analogue explorers Broadcast lhrowrng a dubstep act into the mix. though, given the mongrel torm's current standing at the epicentre ol a street smart club scene, certainly contounds any perceived notions ot l e Weekend as a chin strokers paradise.
l or sure, the testrval Is Increasingly reaching out beyond the lolbooth's tour walls. Saturday morning, tor Instance. Will see Brilliant ()orners (no, not the 80s indie band), take in some ol Stirling}; lesser travelled highways and byways, as an ; ssortrnent ot musicians give renditions ol
lheolonrus Monk's Blue Monk right J/V/ across town ()arnpbell has also put LED BIB
out a worldwede call lor similarly The Jazz Bar, Edinburgh, Sun 7 Jun; Stereo, Glasgow,
Inclined devotees to do likewrse, Mon 8 Jun
posting clips on You lube as they go. Led Bib hit Scotland for a couple of small venue gigs this l estrval director Alasdair Campbell rs month on the back of their latest studio CD, Sensible
typically ebullient. ‘ l his was a real Shoes, newly released on a new (American) label, Steven
opportunity to change the direction ot Feigenbaum’s Cuneiform Records. The London—based
the lestival and to step out lrorn our quartet has been attracting a lot of attention over the
corntort /one,‘ he says. (Neil Cooper) past eighteen months or so for their energised and
iconoclastic approach to contemporary jazz.
The band have predictably outraged the more conservative jazz lovers hooked into swing and idiomatic purity. Their pulling together of free jazz, rock, punk and anything else that seems to fit in the moment has injected a burst of colour and irreverent exuberance into the jazz scene, and if they share some common ground with the likes of Acoustic Ladyland or Polar Bear, they don‘t really feel part of the current scene, according to drummer Mark Holub.
‘We all met up at Middlesex University, so we were a
PREVIEW l lll’ ll()l’ DE LA SOUL HMV Picture House, Edinburgh, Fri 5 Jun; Arches, Glasgow, Sat 6 Jun
Del a Soul got stung. l or much ot the two decades since the release ot seminal hip hopera (9 I eet High And Hrs/rig, Plugs One, two and Three have been at pains to put a srgnrticant margin between themselves and the care tree. cartoon rnishrnash ot crunchy beats, unlikely samples and in jokes that made their trio a household name and primary target tor hip hop's tirst wave ol sampling lawsuits. At last they are making a return to their teenage opus. so tun packed with enduring party tavourites as to have been the alternative soundtrack to the UK's second summer ot love, and treating rt to the attentions of a lull live band.
It is unclear whether this world tour rs recounting 3 feet . . . in its entirely from ‘lntro' to 'Potholes . _' as has become de rigueur. Although they have turned out glimpses oi untettered greatness across the years that followed the debut still stands alone in sound. stance and influence. Indeed the sprawling album (and excitable liner notes) stands well the test ot time.
Above all. De La shows have garnered a reputation tor provrng lazy and anticlimactic, thus the prospect ot hearing but a snapshot of the glory days recreated with lull ive band the Rhythm Roots Allstars punching out the hooks IS thrilling to say the least. with talk ot ‘rehearsals' otten'ng further assurance to those who have stood impatiently through lack lustre performances in the past. Suddenly what was passable becomes imperative. (Mark Edmundson)
70 THE LIST 1’8 Ma» l 1 Jun 200‘.)
bit separate even then, because none of us went to the Royal Academy or the Guildhall. I think as time has gone by we’ve become even more isolated from the jazz community as a group, but in a good way in that people probably aren’t that bothered about what we’re doing. Saying that, though, the scene is much more open now than it was five years ago when we started.’
Holub is joined in the group by alto saxophonists Chris Williams and Pete Grogan, keyboard player Toby McLaren and bassist Liran Donin. The band are known for the collective energy and drive of their live shows, but the new disc reveals a broader picture of where they are taking their music.
‘lt’s a coming of age album for us,’ Holub says. ‘It’s not ovedy intellectual or conceived. On the earlier records, we thought more about how each improvisation might go, but in this record we wanted to go into it really freely, like we do live. This record is our natural sound, embracing all our ideas and influences, with as little weight of tradition as possible.’
(Kenny Mathieson)