Interesting collaboration this one. Mix half of Lemon Jelly (Fred Deakin) with one of The Beta Band, add six further musicians (including old time jazzer Wally Fawkes), shake it all up and see what happens… The result is is a sort of jazz release – but not as we know it. It’s a sort of modern techno thing too, but doesn’t really sound like that, either.
Flashman have taken improvised piano, vocals, fine clarinet and brass, treated the results using modern editing techniques, and then underpinned it with contemporary rhythms and bass. The outcome is a peculiar but very listenable hybrid of sound, mood and style. There are frenetic boleros, chattering beats and Balearic-styled bossa novas that turn into something else – it’s a young-sounding old thing that’s out there somewhere all on its own. It’s also surprisingly deep, with complex dimensions to each track, occasionally sounding like more than one record playing at once but never pushing it too far over the edge. A most unusual, brave and entertaining release.
