Led Bib: The People In Your Neighbourhood

Rating: ★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Liran Donin (b, v)
Chris Williams (as)
Pete Grogan (as, ts)
Toby McLaren (ky)
Mark Holub (d)

Label:

Cuneiform

May/2014

Catalogue Number:

RUNE378

RecordDate:

date not stated

For an instrumental band firmly at home in the jazz scene, Led Bib have always had a conspicuously ‘pop’ approach, releasing collections of short, punchy tunes with hummable hooks and driving, rock-derived directness. For their fifth studio release, though, it sounds like someone's slipped something in their tea. Here, tracks stretch out to eight minutes or more and frequently slip the leash to wander off into more exploratory zones. Sure, Mark Holub's drums are still impressively tight and hard-hitting, and the twin altos of Pete Grogan and Chris Williams maintain a sweet unison approach that's equally adept on jaunty, light-hearted pieces like ‘Plastic Lighthouse’ as on the soaring, anthemic tendencies of ‘Recycling Saga’. But what's got into keyboardist Toby McLaren? Across the whole set, he liberally sprinkles some seriously psychedelic whoosh and twinkle, while his electric piano solos on numbers like ‘This Roofus’ are dripping with the kind of sweaty grime that threatened to put Keith Jarrett's back out when he was playing with Miles in the early 1970s. Liran Donin's electric bass is delightfully filthy too, digging deep into heavy fusion-rock on stormers like ‘Giant Bean’. I'll have whatever they're having.

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