Dumb Instrument - Songs Ya Bass Vol. 1
With the release of debut EP Songs Ya Bass Vol. 1, Dumb Instrument are being touted as champion surfers on a ‘new, and welcome, wave of Scottish music’.
As the CD title suggests, the band are certainly identifiably, idiosyncratically Scottish, right down to the heavily accented vocals and self deprecating, gallows humour inspired lyrics.
Piano sounds, bass and horn combine nicely to create a jaunty, music hall themed melody on ‘Oor Wullie’s Baldy’, juxtaposed with a nightmare vision of our nation’s favourite scamp all grown up into a drunken, suicidal old bore.
‘What if Cliff?’ and ‘Reverse the Hearse’ stick with the tactic of mixing morose musings with a wry, tongue in cheek delivery, respectively questioning Cliff Richard’s fervent Christianity and raging against death and a life not lived to the full.
The lyrics might be transparent, there’s no obscure existential ramblings here, but band founder Tom Murray and co are much more on the ball than their name suggests, offering a new twist on life’s small tragedies by combining caustic lyrics with genteel arrangements and fragile vocals.
They might not bludgeon us over the head with it, but this lot certainly know how to wield their instrument.
(Songs Ya Bass is out now, album due for release summer 2007)
Annie McLaughlin
As the CD title suggests, the band are certainly identifiably, idiosyncratically Scottish, right down to the heavily accented vocals and self deprecating, gallows humour inspired lyrics.
Piano sounds, bass and horn combine nicely to create a jaunty, music hall themed melody on ‘Oor Wullie’s Baldy’, juxtaposed with a nightmare vision of our nation’s favourite scamp all grown up into a drunken, suicidal old bore.
‘What if Cliff?’ and ‘Reverse the Hearse’ stick with the tactic of mixing morose musings with a wry, tongue in cheek delivery, respectively questioning Cliff Richard’s fervent Christianity and raging against death and a life not lived to the full.
The lyrics might be transparent, there’s no obscure existential ramblings here, but band founder Tom Murray and co are much more on the ball than their name suggests, offering a new twist on life’s small tragedies by combining caustic lyrics with genteel arrangements and fragile vocals.
They might not bludgeon us over the head with it, but this lot certainly know how to wield their instrument.
(Songs Ya Bass is out now, album due for release summer 2007)
Annie McLaughlin
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