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Bangkok Post
John Clewley Friday 05 August 2005

Radically traditional

Barnstorming new albums from the pioneers of 'scuffle' and 'acid croft'

At the recent Rainforest World Music festival in Malaysia, I met a wonderful trio of musicians from Australia, The Old Spice Boys. The Boys _ Azo Bell on ukulele, Billy Milroy on tea-chest bass and Tim Reeves on snare drum _ have just sent me a package of fascinating albums, all featuring songs played in their inimitable "scuffle" style, a result so they say, of playing skiffle with a shuffle beat.

Live At the Rails showcases the band's hilarious antics, recorded live at the Railway Friendly bar in Byron Bay, just outside Sydney, and I am reliably informed that this is one of the few remaining railway carriage bars.

The album begins with Azo Bell strumming his ukulele like a flamenco guitarist on Caravan before crashing through three minute covers of Gershwin (A Foggy Day), Bo Diddley (Who Do You Love?), W C Handy (St Louis Blues), Mose Allison (Parchman Farm) and sundry others. One of my favourites is that old Ian Dury chestnut, Clever Bastards, sung with relish by Tim Reeves, who is rumoured to have been the drummer for Mungo Jerry in a previous life. But the killer cover for me is the song that emerged as the festival favourite in Malaysia, Prince's Kiss, complete with falsetto and funk ukulele. Magical.

The band's own compositions, mainly by Azo Bell, also feature, with Bell's reggae exhortation to take to the water, Let's Get Wet, Billy Milroy's I'm Not An Alcoholic, Bell's She Drives A Truck and Bell and Milroy's Who Gave You A Licence outstanding.

While the band are comical and are out to give an audience a good time, the musicianship is top-class; they are clearly very serious about their music. They may play Errol Garner's Misty on kazoo but it still sounds terrific and in Azo Bell they surely have one of this planet's finest ukulele players _ he seems to be able to play anything. Now we may regard this tiny wooden instrument as something of a kid's toy but in the hands of someone like Bell, or Pacific islanders where the instruments is highly regarded, it is the equal of all its bigger cousins. Bell told me that it is really the least threatening thing you can make out of wood. Now you know.

The neatly titled Alibi Of Birdland is the Boy's tribute to jazz masters and their classics. The band moves suavely from Duke Ellington to Miles Davis to John Coltrane to Charlie Parker with three-minute covers that defy gravity and bring a smile.

Azo Bell showcases his dextrous ukulele technique on Small Time, an album of solo songs on which he finds notes and riffs you wouldn't expect from such an innocuous-looking instrument. Indeed, I found myself thinking of Spanish guitars and dulcimers by the end of the album. It would be very interesting, I think, to get Bell playing with artists from outside Australia, perhaps from the Pacific or Okinawa, for example. I suspect that we shall hear much more from Bell and his mates in the future.

Pioneers of "acid croft", a blend of fast and furious Celtic traditional music and dance culture grooves, Shooglenifty have been credited as one of the main pioneers in opening traditional Celtic music to contemporary rhythms. If you've ever seen or heard the band shift effortlessly from the spaciness of dub to a frenetic jig or reel, then you'll know what I'm talking about. For those who don't, get hold of the band's latest album, Radical Mestizo (Shoogle, UK, 2005). It's a real barnstormer.

Radical Mestizo is a set of live songs, taken from gigs in Mexico, the USA and Scotland. Many of the songs are taken from the band's the Arms Dealer's Daughter album but the treat here is that many of the songs are extended and have added "found sounds." Interestingly, the title of the album comes from a Mexican journalist's attempt at defining Shooglenifty's music.

While I like the studio albums the band has released, I think Shooglenifty are a band to be savoured live, where you can see how these fine musicians stretch and bend the songs.

She's in the Attic kicks off the album with driving guitar and a spacey mandolin, and the odd electronic beep, before segueing into Glenaig Ball, a trademark song that features some wonderful interplay between fiddle and mandolin. This leads to a standout track for me, The Arms Dealer's Daughter, which has such delightful melodic opening before the rhythm is cranked up to a raucous climax. I also really liked haunting Carboni's Farewell and the foot-tapping jig that A Fistful of Euros develops into.

Psychedelia meets croft on the album's tour de force finale, Scraping the Barrel (I don't know what is scraping the barrel but it isn't the music), which begins with mandolin and what sounds like a frame drum before fiddle maestro Angus Grant drags the song into a fiery jig. The musicianship on this song, as on the rest of the album is simply astonishing.

With Radical Mestizo, Shooglenifty have released an album that really does capture the band's commanding live presence. Be aware though that this album may cause involuntary idiot dancing; you have been warned. Highly recommended. More information on Shooglenifty from: www.shoogle.com. For mail order try the usual sources: www.amazon.com, www.allmusiccom, www.thephatpllanet.com and www.sternsmusic.com.

This column can be contacted at jclewley@loxinfo.co.th