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Critical Discs [Release date 02.09.22]
They say you should cut your best song first and while DS4 don’t quite do that, they open with the next best thing, an adventurous single called ‘Hip-Hopping’ on which David Sinclair nails his colours to the mast.
He is unafraid to swap genres in the middle of a swinging blues shuffle, which allows special guest Glaswegian Johnny Cypher to fill the track with an autobiographical rap.
Sinclair’s urban cool – “It’s all topping, cause I’m hip-hopping” is the perfect foil for Cypher’s hyper angst: “Sick of working full-time studying accounts and percentages So I left – now I make money rapping my paragraphs instead of sentences.”
Laurie Garnham’s early introductory harp solo is also significant as it anchors a wide ranging album in the blues, while Sinclair’s observational and reflective narratives always keep the songs interesting.
‘Hip-Hopping’ is nicely juxtaposed by the clever word play and guitarist Geoff Peel’s repeated motifs on the funky riff driven ‘Borrowed Rhyme’. It’s a song on which Sinclair sticks closely to his vocal range to phrase expressively while the band locks into the groove.
As the title suggest, ‘Apropos Blues’ is very much a product of the time it was made. It’s a post-covid album in which the emphasis is on taking stock.
The album deals with weighty themes like freedom and time, while musically it balances flint like dynamics with heartfelt lyrics which the band splendidly bring to life with some inspired interplay.
This is particularly so on the title track. Were it not for the Latin and French etymology it would surely be a contemporary blues staple.
It’s an intoxicating mix of observational lyrics and some inspired jamming on the musical bridge, as Peel weaves his guitar solo into the track over the Mendoza brothers rhythm section. The brothers intuitively hover, float and glue the track together with Joss’s lilting bass line and Rory’s extravagant cymbal splashes.
It’s a musical calling card for the album as whole, on which the band swings, jams and moves to full on blues-rock, via some cool poignant meaningful blues before a Chuck Berry rock and roll bookend.
‘Apropos Blues’ revels in stylistic variety framed by Jack Sinclair’s judicious production which allows the music to breathe. The thoughtful sequencing also facilitates a well crafted old school album with contemporary subject matter.
David Sinclair is a fine songwriter who eschews cliché and filters his ideas through a musical version of Cinéma vérité, with his own observational abilities at the core of a well balanced album.
His band does him proud by illuminating lyrical meaning and digging deep for emotional nuances, over contrasting songs of introspection and swagger.
In sum, everything starts and ends with the possibilities of a song, with the good-time Chuck Berry bookend ‘Bye Bye Johnny’ fitting comfortably into the Sinclair appreciation of the art of songwriting.
When it comes to his own abilities, he shines a light for the underdog. A brace of time based songs, ‘Years Are Gone’ and ‘No Time Left to Lose’ cleverly use different musical devices to illustrate thematic content. A perfunctory stop-time line in the former and an urgent ‘call and response’ section in the latter evoke the fast passing of time.
There’s a similar reflective feel of the above in another single ‘Won’t be Divided’. It benefits from a beautiful opening guitar-led motif, a tic-toc snare intro and a catchy hook, while Sinclair adds the perfect world-weary but defiant vocal.
Geoff Peel transforms it at the 1 minute.57second mark into a powerful funky back beat, adding a brief solo with a harmony guitar finish before revisiting the opening lick.
This song perfect distils the band’s essence, a mix of feel, versatility, fluidity and the blues, which is never too far away.
The band reaches for something extra on the poignant lyrics and blues rock bluster of ‘When Her Ship Comes Sailing In’, which finds Laurie Garnham’s harp and Geoff Peel guitar in perfect tandem.
There’s a curious Nashville feel to ‘The Bands of London’, a song about going stir crazy under lock down. In spite of the jangling guitars and sub Stones feel it plods a little and is quickly rescued by a classic Sinclair couplet: “I wanna see the bands of London, And feel my ears ring like empty shells.”
He also uses a clever titular word play on “Fell In Love with ‘L’Amour’ and just when you think the idea doesn’t quite stretch to a memorable song, it’s rescued by effective Beatles style bv’s and a warm piano line.
In sum this is a hugely enjoyable album that engages us with meaningful words, great band interplay and Sinclair’s empathetic phrasing.
Too clever to be just a blues album, and not bluesy enough for purists, this is a potent song-driven album that represents a career high for DS4. It’s good enough to sit proudly in any self respecting rock fans collection. ****
Review by Pete Feenstra
Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK
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14:00-16:00 KATARINA PEJAK – Pearls On A String (Ruf Records)
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