Led Bib, Dempsey’s, Cardiff, 30/04/2013.

It seems incredible that Led Bib are celebrating their tenth anniversary as a band in 2014. The group started at Middlesex University as part of a college project by New Jersey born drummer and composer Mark Holub but the chemistry between the five members quickly saw the band becoming a regular working group. Holub, now a British citizen, remains the band’s unspoken leader and chief writer but the group has developed into a highly interactive unit over the course of five studio recordings and two live albums. Other members have begun to contribute composition and the band’s live performances allow plenty of scope for improvisation around a series of memorable hooks, riffs, grooves and themes. The line up throughout has been constant and features the twin alto sax front line of Chris Williams and Pete Grogan plus Toby McLaren on keyboards and Israeli born Liran Donin on electric and acoustic bass.

I first encountered Led Bib’s music on a sweltering night in 2006 at the band’s spiritual home,  London’s Vortex jazz club. The group were curating their own “Dalston Summer Stew” mini festival and kicked off the evening with a blistering set of tunes from their début album “Arboretum” .The other performers were pianist Matthew Bourne with a typically idiosyncratic solo set that also incorporated samples and other electronica and the Nottingham based Pinski Zoo who matched Led Bib for intensity and had very possibly been a strong inspiration for Holub’s then fledgling group.

At first I was overwhelmed by the sheer power and volume of Led Bib in the intimate space of the Vortex but my ears soon started picking up the subtleties of their music and subsequently I very much enjoyed immersing myself in the “Arboretum” album. In short I became a fan, purchasing second album “Sizewell Tea” (Babel) and the limited edition “Live” before moving on to review their Cuneiform Records releases “Sensible Shoes” and “Bring Your Own”, with “Shoes”  raising the band’s profile considerably by being nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. I’ve seen the band live again on numerous occasions and loved every one including a performance at Dempsey’s in 2009 plus later festival appearances at Lichfield and Brecon. 

If “Bring Your Own” presented a tightly focussed vision of the band’s sound, perhaps a conscious but subtle attempt to build commercially on the Mercury nomination, then their new Cuneiform release “The People In Your Neighbourhood” takes a step in the opposite direction. Here the tunes are longer, typically seven or eight minutes, with a greater sense of variation and dynamic range and with wider scope for improvisation. Donin and Grogan make their compositional débuts and the album can be considered Led Bib’s most mature artistic statement to date. I think it’s fair to say that each album has represented a progression but without ever diluting the trademark Led Bib sound and this latest offering is no exception. 

The band have been presenting the music from the new album around the country and the Cardiff date represented their last gig on the road prior to concluding the tour with a three night residency at The Vortex. Consequently there was a “last night” feel about the evening with Holub and his colleagues in relaxed mood and enjoying cheery between tunes banter with the Cardiff audience. This was the third time that the group had played at the venue and the room was comfortably full of expectant listeners, confirmation that Led Bib have won themselves something of a following in this part of the world. Their fan based increased yet further as my sister in law Pauline and her husband Glyn, first timers at a Led Bib show, joined the ranks of instant converts. 

A cheery Holub rambled amiably between tunes but largely failed to announce any tune titles, something that became a running joke as the evening progressed. Although he acknowledged the contributions from Donin (“Orphan Elephants”) and Grogan (“This Roofus”) this wasn’t really a performance that led itself to a blow by blow account of each tune so I’ll save that for the album. However all the classic Led Bib hallmarks were here, catchy hooks and riffs, taut unison passages and fiery soloing from the twin altos, dirty, glitchy sci-fi Rhodes from McLaren and the rhythmic juggernaut that is Holub and Donin, the latter concentrating tonight entirely on electric bass. The band played most of the album, spreading out on the tunes and with McLaren making use of the venue’s grand piano to increase his options and augment a sound already enlivened by the use of space and loop stations and other electronic gizmos. He seems to have acquired some new piece of kit every time I see the band and this time was also sporting a tattoo on his arm that I’d never noticed before. Meanwhile Donin also has an array of foot pedals which he uses to distort his bass sound, this is a band that loves to experiment with technology and does so in the best exploratory manner. Their live shows are still thrilling and often highly visceral but these days there are quieter, more impressionistic moments as the band stretch out more, the dynamic contrasts making the more full on moments even more impressive and dramatic. This is a group that has matured, they don’t play hell for leather all the time these days but when they do the effect is devastating. 

This was my first trip to Dempsey’s for quite some time following the poor winter weather and it felt good to be back amongst friends. With one of my favourite bands playing to a large and enthusiastic audience this was yet another classic Dempsey’s night.

I’ll save the in depth stuff for the album which despite its label release was partially financed by a Kickstarter campaign. The album title and artwork acknowledges “the people in your neighbourhood” who supported the project and a list of subscribers appears as part of the album packaging. The campaign also gave the band the opportunity to release a live vinyl album entitled “The Good Egg”, recorded at performances at The Vortex and at the Match & Fuse Festival at Rich Mix in Bethnal Green. The band had initially been undecided whether to make their fifth official release a studio or live album, in the end their Kickstarter campaign provided them with the best of both worlds.   

The studio album kicks off with the infectious hooks of the Williams composed “New Teles” , the music also the inspiration for a short animated film by Matthew Robins which can be viewed at http://www.ledbib.com
McLaren’s deranged keyboards are the perfect companion to the honking saxes and rumbling drums as Led Bib wade in with an invigorating reminder of the energy levels they’re capable of generating. But there’s still scope for one of the altos (presumably Williams) to go wandering off on his own in absorbing fashion before the whole band crash in once more. 

Several of the tunes on the album have been in the band’s live repertoire for a couple of years, hence Holub’s description of tunes as “old new ones” and “new new ones” and Dempsey’s, confusing for anybody who hadn’t seen the band recently. The old new stuff includes Holub’s “Giant Bean” with its monstrous Van Der Graaf/ King Crimson style riffs incorporating squalling saxes, dense keyboards and thunderous drumming. But Led Bib are more jazz than either of those behemoths and soon strike out into freer territory, placing a higher premium on dynamic contrast and group improvisation. Indeed Led Bib consistently strike the right balance between the composed and the improvised, the accessibility and immediacy of the written parts contrasting well with the spirit of adventure expressed in the improvised sections. This is a band with a well defined group sound, but one which is always questioning its own identity.

Donin’s cinematic “Angry Waters (Lost To Sea)” seems to be the piece most broadcasters have chosen to illustrate the new album. Featuring McLaren on both acoustic piano and Rhodes it’s one of the most evocative pieces the group have recorded with a strong narrative feeling that builds from a gentle piano and sax introduction to the swirling fury suggested by the title by way of anthemic passages backed by rock inspired rhythms before fading away once more.

“This Roofus” represents Grogan’s compositional début for the band and is inspired by a Walthamstow (rather than Waterloo) sunset. The opening sax riff barrage leads to a rambling alto solo, presumably by Grogan himself, backed by Holub’s rolling toms and McLaren’s heavily treated keyboards. Eventually this morphs into a Rhodes solo underpinned by cerebrally funky odd meter bass and drum grooves with McLaren upping the distortion levels as the tune progresses. Eventually things resolve themselves with the return of the opening sax riff. A strong offering with the pen by Grogan, hopefully the first of many more.

In keeping with the spirit of the album Holub’s “Recycling Saga” is another piece to embrace a strong narrative arc by beginning quietly and progressing through a series of contrasting phases, some of them positively anthemic, with McLaren again featuring on acoustic piano. It’s perhaps no surprise to find that the engineering team includes Richard Woodcraft who has worked with Radiohead among others.

The hooky “Plastic Lighthouse” is classic Led Bib with its searing twin sax attack, walloping grooves and glitchy keyboards. But even this meanders into freer terrain in a convincing blend of Led Bib old and new. Holub has been an advocate for improvisation and has been involved in a number of more obviously freely improvised projects, most notably with saxophonist Colin Webster.

“Tastes So Central” represents the second compositional contribution from Chris Williams, which begins as a lightly funky offering featuring Donin’s implacable bass grooves and McLaren’s shimmering Rhodes alongside the twin saxes. Again the piece moves through several phases during the course of the group’s explorations, drifting into a spacey impressionism before the opening groove eventually returns.

Holub’s “Imperial Green” is a tune about tea, further evidence of just how Anglicised he’s become.
“The Highlands Meets Albert Ayler” declares the press release and there’s certainly something of the skirl of the pipes about the opening sax barrage. There’s that anthemic quality too in the later soaring sax lines. At a little over three minutes it’s one of the album’s shorter pieces.

“Curly Kale” first embraces rollicking grooves before a quirky central section featuring intertwining saxes, skittering drum grooves and the group wild card that is McLaren’s doctored Rhodes. Eventually it’s heads down for the finish.

There’s more of the same on the supremely freaky “At The Ant Farm” which combines ferocious hooks and riffs with excursions into outer space. 

Finally we hear Donin’s “Orphan Elements” which adds dub reggae elements to the band’s sound. Donin is a monster bassist whose grooves are at the heart of the Led Bib sound alongside Holub’s hard hitting but supremely fluid drumming. At times in Cardiff you could feel Donin’s bass as much as hear it, especially when he put his foot on the distortion pedal. Glyn was hugely impressed with him, meanwhile writing in Jazzwise magazine Daniel Spicer described Donin’s sound as “delightfully filthy” which sums it up perfectly.

It’s quite an achievement for a band to make its best album some ten years into its career but that is what Led Bib have done. “The People In Your Neighbourhood” is their most multi-faceted album so far and exhibits evidence of a growing compositional maturity. Some of these pieces are positively cinematic scope but at the same time the band have lost nothing of their trademark bite and look set to develop yet further. “The People In Your Neighbourhood” is highly recommended. 

The vinyl album “The Good Egg” also appears on the Cuneiform imprint but was essentially paid for by the band themselves with the money from the Kickstarter campaign.  It wasn’t part of the promotional material I received and I stumped up the money for it at the Cardiff gig, I’ve got everything else these guys have recorded so I just had to have this too. The album sees the group stretching out even further on “Giant Bean”, “Recycling Saga” and “Imperial Green” plus Williams’ “Shapes And Sizes” from the previous album “Bring Your Own” ,a piece which also appears in another guise on the recent Let Spin album .“The Good Egg” is the same but different with an unmistakable live sound. As I had to fork out for it I don’t intend to a full scale dissection but I did note that the band sold several other copies on the night, a tribute to the continuing rise of vinyl. 

At the time of writing the band are playing a three night residency at The Vortex Jazz Club in London. http://www.vortexjazz.co.uk 

blog comments powered by Disqus