Barb And Feather

 

A few weeks ago Red Snapper released their new album Barb And Feathers. Formed in London in 1993 as a instrumental band and in the beginning, they played straight jazz with double bass, sax and guitar, sometimes infused with Beth Orton's voice and new sounds for the time.

I became aware of this record when my youngest brother copied it for me and raved to me about the then new sound mix of dub, jazz, post-punk, techno and trip-hop. 

The album has two different parts and on side one they celebrate a faster sound. Ban-Ti-Do starts the record with a Lust For Life-esque rhythm with a surf guitar and horns that reminds me to the best days of Pigpack and ends with a cover version of Bowie's Sound And Vision.

 

Side two is a collaboration with David Harrow an English music producer, DJ and multimedia artist. He might be known as the producer of Anne Clark in the mid eighties. This side is more an excursion in reduced electronic sounds. Red Snapper take the chance to combine their music with the Harrow's experiences from his collaboration with Jah Wobble and Andrew Weatherall. Mostly smoothly flowing rhythms with dub and reggae influence.

 

And as mentioned here is a song from their early EP with Beth Orton