Red Snapper - Key

Red Snapper are positive stalwarts of the acid jazz scene, and they're back with a seventh album that's full of twisting, writhing funk, urgent basslines, and well-matched vocals that blend seamlessly with the evocative instrumentals that underpin it all.
The album was apparently recorded in a makeshift studio set up in drummer Rich Thair's house - you wouldn't have guessed, as there's a crystal clarity to the recording that conjures up the spirit of smoke-filled London clubs long since departed - a sound that's at the heart of a Venn diagram of beats, jazz, and experimental sounds. Tracks build into swirling vortexes of bass and percussion punctuated by effects pedals and vocals, which are employed sparingly until standout track Architectronic. Here, Gavin Clarke (UNKLE, Clayhill) gives us a deliciously smooth delivery that's nevertheless charged with a powerful sense of foreboding. Collaborators also help out on another of the album's highlights, Loveboat, where Eliza Carthy's husky voice meshes perfectly with Tom Challenger's fired-up sax to tell the story of a philanderer in a fix. It's a fast-paced number that works well to contrast with the inevitably laid-back sounds of other songs on the album - although there's also some particularly satisfying dark and moody moments on tracks such as Take Your Medicine, as well as the positively aggressive Spikey, which ensure a depth and breadth of variety across the package as a whole. Clarke returns on the excellent Jack, where a restrained approach sees the minimum of extraneous elements, the shimmering strings coiling around his voice like a snake around its prey.

The main thing that strikes you about this album is the masterful intertwining of complex arrangements – of course, it’s no less than what you expect from a group who’ve been together for the best part of 18 years, on-and-off. At times it's a near-perfect representation of its style. While occasionally a little meandering, it never loses focus, and although the runtime of one hour feels slightly overlong the quality remains consistently high throughout. Besides, it seems churlish to criticise a bit of sprawl when dealing with a jazz-based genre. Put simply, it's an album that's effortless easy to enjoy, but one that is by no means a shallow or simplistic affair.