All these years, I've thought the Jazz Butcher (aka Pat Fish) had taken his moniker in a fit of dada. As this live set bears out, there's a bit more significance to it that the juxtaposition of the absurd. On a cold Hamburg evening about a year ago, the Jazz Butcher and a handful of co-conspirators took the stage and recorded a couple hours' worth of music. Overwhelmingly present are twin comping guitars, pumping and strumming out deliciously fractured chords and the occasional blue lick, and Butchie's old-fashioned melodic voice. The music is jazzy and unplugged, in the best sense of both words, while the songs themselves are more than a bit twisted in typical Jazz Butcher Conspiracy style. Familiar friends like "D.R.I.N.K.", "Partytime," and "The Human Jungle" are present here, the first two sticking close to the original plan and the latter stripped down a bit but still resplendent in its hooky melody. JBC fans must -- absolutely must -- seek this out. For the uninitiated, it's not much of an accurate picture of the band (other than in displaying just how top-notch JBC songs are), but it's still a wonderfully relaxed, stripped-down release and it does just fine on those merits, thank you.

Ian Koss

No comments yet for this page [Add your own]