Like Loose Tubes, who have reformed in the three years since the Manchester band’s earlier album Big Ideas, Beats & Pieces strip away big band niceties.

Tuxless and unstuffy, they’re brash and exuberant, getting stuck in with a quick shout of all right before flying into ‘Rocky,’ the opener of a studio album recorded in mid-January last year.

There’s oodles of skill etched out in the lively arrangements, the trumpet section particularly capable of great tenderness or a John Barry-like ensemble swagger on a track like ‘Havmann.’

Led once again by Ben Cottrell with brassy boldness provided in depth by three each of sax, trumpet and trombone and a four-piece rhythm section completing the line-up Cottrell has written most of the tunes and gone out on a limb to come up with a new take on David Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’ which may well be more of a distraction than a plus point. However, there’s plenty of energy and life to the album overall and beyond the heat and sheer sense of motion I’d pick out the north country charm of the opening of ‘Fairytale’, right at the end, complete with affecting trumpet from Graham South, as just one small indication of their distinctiveness.

Stephen Graham