The Broken Broadcast - How Not To Cut A Buffalo

Howdy, bitches. I know, two blog posts in one weekend? Aren't you a lucky set of buggers?

Keeping the momentum going before Monday kicks us all in the capri pants and flings us headfirst into yet another week of terminal decline and tea breaks.

Today's feature is about a release from earlier this year - a record that was put out while thegeneralmusicblog was on hiatus (thegeneral herself is still on a hiatus from life, but that's a whole other story, for which you'll need a family pack of Mars Bars, Valium and earplugs). However, the band in question very sweetly tweeted me last week and asked if I'd be willing to give their latest gramaphone record a listen and I heartily agreed.

Now then.

The Broken Broadcast. How Not To Cut A Buffalo. Well first of all, how could you not love an album with a title like that? You're already onto a winner. But of course, it's the music. It's all about the music. So what can this treasure trove offer you?

Quite a very big lot as it turns out. It's such a warm  record with a very good vibe to it. Vocalist James Riggall's voice struck me straight away - reminding me immediately of the not-very-often-mentioned-but-should-be Andy Spearpoint from the late, lamented 1980s Madchester outfit New Fast Automatic Daffodils. Such a chilled out, laconic sounding voice which marries really well with the great musical mash-up of guitars/bass/drums/brass and glockenspiel/cello.

The music is inventively chippy, intrepid and swingy. Some of the songs - I'm thinking in particular of "Swim" here, have a delightfully childlike insouciance to them, helped along with the gently tinkling percussion and again, by the lulling juxtaposition of the vocal performance, which gathers in strength and power as the song progresses.

Stand out tracks (for thegeneral) are the abovementioned and also the second track "This Is My Wilderness", which has a belter of a guitar part, quietly driving percussion and really actually quite moving lyrics. The nicely harmonised "Silence is golden when I'm with you" is the take home line, repeated throughout, to great effect. A wise sage once said to the thegeneral that you know you've cracked it with a member of the opposite sex when you can sit in silence with them, it feels comfortable and doesn't matter that you're not nattering ten to the dozen. However, that's all by the bypass, but the line did strike me as prescient.

Each track, in it's own right has something special to offer - whether it is folky banjos (not a euphemism), lo-fi indie style or moving pianos (as in the case of mid point track "Sea Coal Collectors").

So, although this album has been out since the Summer, I'd really recommend you hopped on over to the band's bandcamp page here:

http://thebrokenbroadcast.bandcamp.com/

And checked out what they have to offer, because as I always say, you won't regret it. And as anyone who knows me, knows - I'm very rarely wrong, and even when I am, I'm still usually right.