The Bandana Collective
Album: Viva Bandana
Label: Irregular
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.bandanacollective.co.uk

Having been brought together by a shared interest in handkerchief headgear and the songs of Robb Johnson, Hove Folk Club regulars Jon Mason and Bethan Prosser, along with Lawrie Stevens, took variations on Bankrobber and Girlfriend in a Coma as the jumping off point to an exploration of their own songs.

Thus, the reedy voice that propels Riot Song, Rise Again and Awkward sounds more concerned with getting the lyrics heard than actually performing them. Having recruited the aforementioned Johnson to play bass, piano and sing a bit (he also contributes the diverting tale of Old Punks Called Dave), not to mention the exuberant and youthful drums of his son Arvin, TBC have the sound of a fully realised outfit. They also have some promising songs that will one day flourish into so much more than the soundtrack to left-leaning barbecue party folk nights - Ten Years Ago conjures with growing up and quelling anger, the defiant This Is Our Music will strike many a chord as will The Ballad of Call Centre Workers. Musically, there are some telling touches as well with the fiddle on Hippy Bollox fiddle referencing the riff from Mind Games and Dancing in the Snow delivering a chilly slice of wintry melancholia with one foot in Mother Russia, the other on the South Downs.

Nick Churchill
www.thegranvillechambers.co.uk