Just in time for Christmas ’08 Trunk released this as a digital download album. Lovely stuff, perfect timing, but blasphemy for those of us who pray for the next physical Trunk release. Thanks to unscrupulous market-trading bootleggers in the early 00s, Trunk won’t be releasing this on vinyl, but they’ve at least bestowed upon us a CD release of one the most beguiling records to straddle British jazz, kitsch and easy listening.
Originally released on Davjon in 1968, Hymns A’Swinging sees composer extraordinaire Mikes Sammes (of 2006’s Music For Biscuits) rescue church hymns from the monotonous Sunday afternoon drawl of untrained community voices. At the hands of his singers, the Organsound and guesting British jazz legend Tubby Hayes, they come out bright, beautiful and hip-shakingly fun. He Who Would Valient Be puts the funk in monk; with its go-karting bass and Latino break-downs, the possession-inducing All Things Bright & Beautiful rams Sympathy For The Devil head-on into salvation of the soul; the sitar-laden Glorious Things Of Thee Are Spoken is as slinky as any glint-eyed snake with apples to share. Connect your cables and overturn your tables, if this isn’t one of your Sunday best by Easter, your decks need to be altered.
