ARTEFACT
(jeremysawkins.com)
7/10
If life has you grinding your teeth down to stumps, this may be the antidote. The opening Blues For Sera has such a relaxed, loping swing that you can’t help but exhale deeply in a contented sort of way, and think things aren’t too bad. A bass line played on organ pedals always fashions a different groove, and here the tap-dancing is done by Darren Heinrich, his feet and Toby Hall’s drumming making the music super-relaxed and yet insistently toe-tappin’. Joining the party are Jeremy Sawkins (guitar), Spike Mason (saxophones) and Heinrich (on the organ’s upstairs section).
Even on the faster Shiftin’ or the funkier Funny Farm the playing has a breeziness, so you never feel like your cage is being rattled, despite the music flitting through phases of higher drama: more like flying than digging in, if you like. Including the Irish traditional She Moved Through the Fair was an inspired decision by Sawkins, the guitar and saxophone combining to bagpipe-like effect while the listener is taken to a very different, floating, misty world in the middle of the album.