Pigbag: Year Of The Pigbag (Sugar Shack Records)
CD/DL
25 March 2013
Pigbag’s Got A Brand New Album.
This was very intriguing.
Makers of one of the finest dance singles of the eighties (and one
guaranteed to get everyone on their feet at the time) have reformed with
founding members Chris Lee, Ollie Moore and Kofi Adu and bombed back to the
studio to record nine new tracks in the shape of ‘Year Of The Pigbag’. The title is as adventurous as the sound of
their debut single, but, we all know what happened to that.
Since those heady days of dancing like there’s no tomorrow,
members of Pigbag have been playing with the likes of The Pogues, Neneh Cherry
and the mighty Abyssisians, and, it would appear from the tracks on the new
album, maturing a bit. With track titles
like ‘Cuban Rice (Is Very Nice)’ and ‘Jumpers For Goalposts’, their sense of
humour clearly hasn’t deserted them and neither has their ability to crack out
a good tune. The former opens the album
with a dubbed horn and launches straight into, as the title would suggest, a
Cuban beat with cool funky guitar and tinkling keyboards. The sound quality of the recording is
striking, crystal clear and the eight-piece could almost be sat over your
shoulder, the hook is compulsive listening and the baritone saxophone is
delightful. At over nine minutes long,
it’s a quite brilliant start to the album.
The melody hooks on the album are probably as you’d imagine
– rousing horn sections playing tunes that become unforgettable – ‘Disco Mama’
being no exception with its 70s wah-wah guitar and bass reminiscent of ‘Car
Wash’ or ‘Shaft’. There are hints of The
Apples’ ‘Fly On It’ album from last year with the groovy horns brought right up
to date in a modern day, almost clinical sounding, style.
Where the album goes slightly of the rails, is where Pigbag
have obviously matured. Some of the
tracks are far too long and become slightly pretentious. From the opening of ‘Out Of Chaos’ is an
almost avant garde, freestyle sort of format.
It’s not unlistenable, but, is very film soundtrack based, (and more
forgettable), sounding more like a jazz jam session than a structured
track. A case of too much too, with a
couple of minutes that could have been quite easily shaved off. It’s s shame, and a lively horn section at
the end is most welcome.
‘Beluga’ for me is just filler. It experiments and doesn’t really have any
cohesiveness. It doesn’t really go
anyway and could really have been left off the album. What happens next though is marvellous, ‘Jumpers
For Goalposts’ is a monster of a track, superb hook and great feel and possibly
the natural progression from ‘Papa’s Got A Brand New Pigbag’ for us
40-something year olds. Bootsy Collins
would be proud of recording ‘Brains’, and the Black President himself, Fela Kuti, would be more than happy to have ‘Afrodite On The Horizontal’ to his name
with the funkiest of funky basslines going on.
In summary, some diamonds and some dirt. When Pigbag fail to deliver, they barely
glisten in the sun, but, when they shine, they shine brightly, and really come
up with the goods. The year of the
Pigbag? Possibly.
7/10
Check out the Pigbag website here.
Follow them on Twitter here.
Tell them you like them on Facebook here
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