The Golden Age of Steam
Welcome to Bat Country
Basho **** RECOMMENDED
James Allsopp is one of the most talented bass clarinettists and reeds players on the planet and here he builds on his excellent trio album Raspberry Tongue released three-and-a-half years ago. It’s still a trio (Allsopp, with Troyka organist Kit Downes, and former Hungry Ant Tim Giles), plus guests including the album’s producer Alex Bonney on trumpet, and a feline called Freddie “purring" on ‘Waffle Throne’. It’s all the fun of the fair with a Lynchian sense of unease at its anarchic, if eerily merry, heart. SG