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Review

Led Bib

Bring Your Own

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by Ian Mann

February 08, 2011

/ ALBUM

"Bring Your Own" consolidates Led Bib's position as one of the most exciting young groups around in any genre.

Led Bib

“Bring Your Own”

(Cuneiform Records Rune 311)

Led Bib’s second album for Cuneiform and their fifth overall sees the group retaining the stable line up that has served them so well since their formation at Middlesex University some years back.
Expatriate American drummer and leader Mark Holub remains the band’s driving force alongside bassist Liran Donin, keyboard whizz Toby McLaren and twin alto saxophonists Pete Grogan and Chris Williams.

The group set their stall out on their powerful début recording “Arboretum” in 2005 as they set about building a young and loyal following for their rumbustious stew of jazz, rock and improv. It was the group’s fourth album “Sensible Shoes”, their first for Cuneiform, that really brought the band to mass public attention when it was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. “Bring Your Own” attempts to consolidate on the band’s relative commercial success with ten tightly focussed performances but at the same time retains the group’s trademark passion and intensity. Led Bib are a band that have achieved success on their own terms, the tunes here may be leaner, but they’re also meaner, with no inherent hint of compromise.

Some reviewers have commented that the Led Bib of 2011 sound little different to the one of 2005 but although the blueprint remains much the same I’ve noticed subtle changes and a growing compositional maturity with each release. Holub was originally the sole writer for the band and they were also prone to throw in the odd winning cover such as Talking Heads’ “Memories Can’t Wait” on “Arboretum” and David Bowie’s “Heroes” on second album “Sizewell Tea”.

These days Williams and McLaren are also finding their compositional voices-Williams’ cinematic “Zone 4” from “Sensible Shoes” was particularly impressive- and both make substantial contributions here. Nevertheless Holub still leads from the rear in a kind of benign dictatorship. Led Bib is definitely his vision.

I was lucky enough to see the group perform some of this material last summer at festival appearances at Lichfield and Moseley and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The band clearly enjoyed it too, there’s a strong sense of fun in Led Bib’s performances as the musicians bounce ideas around and there’s an element of friendly competition as they try to outdo each other in feats of musical daring. This new album was thus keenly anticipated and I’m pleased to report that “Bring Your Own” doesn’t disappoint.

Holub recently commented that his tunes have a beginning and an end but that the middle is “totally open”. The new album is peppered with killer hooks and grooves but still retains the grittiness of improvisation, Led Bib are thus more “jazz” than the more song orientated Acoustic Ladyland, a band who play with a similar volume and intensity. Led Bib arguably have more in common with Ladyland’s sister group Polar Bear who place more emphasis on improvisation, however Led Bib’s often snarling delivery is very different from Polar Bear’s more impressionistic other worldliness. Nonetheless Holub and Polar Bear’s drummer/leader Sebastian Rochford share a great mutual respect, occasionally collaborating in the group Mustard Pie.

“Bring Your Own” roars out of the traps with Holub’s “Moth Dilemma” which packs a monster punch. The twin altos of Williams and Grogan spit, coil and writhe like a couple of intertwined snakes. McLaren is credited rather baldly with “Fender Rhodes”. However this hardly does the range of sounds he generates justice. At last summer’s gigs both he and Donin had added elements of electronica to their set ups and the fruits of this can be heard throughout the album, the band’s sonic range is broader than ever before. Here Mclaren sometimes simulates the sound of an electric guitar.

There’s no let up with “Is That A Woodblock?” which actually gained a single release. The initial hook is one of the catchiest on the album and the tune bristles with rock power. However there’s a more freely improvised middle section featuring the alto of Pete Grogan which probably renders it a little too esoteric for mass consumption. When the theme returns it packs a mighty wallop. It’s great stuff, but sadly in these days of Simon Cowell the chances of an instrumental, let alone one as uncompromising as this, actually becoming a hit single are probably less than zero.

Williams’ “Little X” offers further evidence of McLaren and Donin’s electronics, the spacey opening giving way to another killer hook before expanding into a ferocious alto sax duel underpinned by slippery bass lines and monster drumming. Then there’s a stunning keyboard solo by McLaren, simultaneously spacey and funky and fuelled by Donin’s virile bass.

Holub’s brief “Hollow Ponds”, a homage to a Walthamstow park, reveals a gentler side of the band and reveals something of the growing compositional maturity previously alluded to with Donin switching to acoustic bass. It’s melancholic, descriptive and vaguely anthemic, perhaps owing something to Polar Bear’s approach.

After this delightful pause for breath the galumphing “Power Walking” packs an even greater punch. A rumbling bass groove, volcanic drumming, towering altos and McLaren’s whooshing keyboards combine to awesome effect on a delectably riotous chunk of skronk. Maybe this should have been the single choice, the repellent Cowell notwithstanding. 

McLaren’s “Service Station Saviour”( I’m sure there must be a good story behind the title), is a slow burner of a tune but still retains the band’s trademark intensity. Paced by his own keyboards the piece contains a deliciously dry alto solo that grows in intensity as Holub and co. develop the underlying groove. Once more the tune has a subtle anthemic quality, this must be the strongest set of themes Led Bib have produced to date.

The stop/start “Engine Room” borrows from the jagged signatures of prog rock to powerful and very contemporary effect. Blistering alto combines with McLaren’s spacey keyboard wig outs. Here, as elsewhere, Led Bib manage to cram a hell of a lot into five minutes or so, the abrupt changes of mood and pace never quite blunting the band’s steely sense of purpose.

“Shapes And Sizes” is Williams’ second contribution, opening quietly with Donin’s solo electric bass before slowly moving up through the gears as the rest of the band join in. The central riff is exhilarating as Donin and Holub set up a jet propelled groove over which the twin horns honk and flutter. There’s a lengthy and freaky sax/keyboards interlude as the rhythm section lay back before the group reel everything back in by the close. Great stuff.

“Walnuts” features more turbo charged grooves and bellicose, vaguely Middle eastern horns with the band once again working their magic of tension and release. At one point during the now customary freer central passage a lone alto saxophone becomes lost in the forest as McLaren’s keyboards simulate the sound of howling wolves. It’s scary and highly descriptive but all resolved by the joyous return of the rollicking main theme.

The closing “Winter” is similarly cinematic, emerging from grainy arco bass textures through exotically biting alto sax to full on anthemic magnificence. Holub and Donin set up a rolling groove that lays the foundations for the epic to come. Like the earlier “Engine Room” it borrows unapologetically from prog rock, if ever there was a jazz “lighter waver”, this is it. 

“Bring Your Own” consolidates Led Bib’s position as one of the most exciting young groups around in any genre. There’s an urgency and excitement to their playing that crosses barriers but much of their methodology is still rooted firmly in jazz. They may borrow from rock but all the members of Led Bib have impeccable jazz credentials as the individuals’ work outside the band attests. However
their deployment of one time P J Harvey collaborator Head as in the production process adds some serious rock cred to the band’s CV.

With their most melodic record to date Led Bib seem guaranteed to build upon their success. There are some striking themes here, enlivened by some passionate and technically brilliant playing. Holub says of the record; “What’s been created is an album that documents everything we’ve ever done over the last seven years, a culmination of all the different directions we’ve gone in, but with the sound pushed in new and exciting places. The tracks are concise without sacrificing the integrity of the improvising.”
That last sentence sums it up for me. I’d say that Holub is a very shrewd assessor of his own work. “Bring Your Own” should be their most successful album to date.

The band will be touring the album in the UK with confirmed dates shown below;

Live UK dates:
28 February Album Launch at The Purcell Room, Southbank Centre London
2 March The Harley, Sheffield
3 March The Spin Off at Bar Santiago, Leeds
4 March The Kazimier, Liverpool
5 March The Old Hairdresser, Glasgow
6 March The Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh
9 March Dempsey’s, Cardiff
26 March Gateshead Jazz Festival

More details at http://www.ledbib.com

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