The High Llamas - Cold and Bouncy (Alpaca)

As the High Llama's return with the follow-up to last year’s Hawaii, this is just the sort of thing you might expect from a band that have recently returned from touring the other side of the Atlantic with Stereolab. Picture Monty Python buffoons performing cocktail jazz with an electronica technician pondering away in the background and you have ‘The Sun Beats Down’. This and tracks such as ‘Tilting Windmills’ have an English vocal air that removes it from the realms of dance music and is much more reminiscent (very reminiscent, in fact) of screwball English poets XTC from their pseudo-psychedelic Skylarking era! But there are two sides to every story and tracks such as ‘HiBall Nova Scoptia’ and ‘Time’ on the other hand offer classic sixties-style themery and romance. The former being the sort that Corduroy used to specialise in before they made a video with Barbera Windsor, with the latter being particularly reminiscent of Stereolab's recent Dots & Loops excursion. As this album progresses, more elements and angles are included like the strange electronique meanderings of ‘Bouncy Glimmer’ and ‘Evergreen Vampo’. Cold & Bouncy is - as it sounds - a strangely compelling mixture. 7/10


This review also published in: DJ magazine