Rupert Wates
Album: The Rank Outsiders Ball
Label: Bite
Tracks: 14
Website: http://www.rupertwatesmusic.com

Sitting in a weird twilight where a late Edwardian country village fete somehow rubs up against sleazy Left Bank chic and tattooed fire eaters take tea and tiffin with the Village Green Preservation Society you'll find "The Rank Outsiders Ball".

And as the late evening sun drifts slowly below the horizon and the shadows lengthen you'll find the seductive sounds of Rupert Wates and his three piece combo, The Band Of Geeks, also consisting of Trifon Dimitrov, Chris Howard and Bartosz Hadala, gradually become more corrupting and deviant as we move into tales of betrayal and murder.

It came as no surprise to discover that Wates, was London born, spent time in Paris, more surprising that he has been US base since 2006, though that wears off quite quickly when you realise that a number of the songs on this album draw reference to dust bowl depression and burlesque, an art form that his music really encapsulates very well.

This is actually the fifth album he's produced since his relocation Stateside and the third is a sequence that feature a location/event theme, picking up on 2010's "Joes Cafe" and the 2012 offering "At The Losers Motel", both of which I've been inspired to seek out.

"The Rank Outsiders Ball" is exquisitely performed, it's an album that has a real vibe, jazz influence, between the wall feel that allow the well constructed vignette songs well, get away with murder, there's a lot that lurks in the shadows, yet those same shadows also provide an anonymity that allow you to indulge in other activities.

As you can tell I've very rapidly become a fan and Rupert Wates and his band of musicians. "The Rank Outsiders Ball" is one of those albums that feels slightly out of time and in doing so becomes almost timeless. There's fourteen tracks on this cut ad frankly everyone of them's a winner.

Neil King