aaamusic | On 04, Oct 2010

Undeniably one of the most exciting folk bands of our day, Bellowhead’s difficulty in recording an album was always going to be in attempting to recreate the exuberance and thrill of their live show – especially seeing as one can hardly replicate on record the appearance of burlesque dances and cross dresses that appeared at the 2009 Southbank Centre performance.

Luckily it has always been Bellowhead’s music, as much as their theatricality that has garnered them such great acclaim and attention, and luckily the boisterous humour they possess does not end with their live performance. Proving that folk can rock, Bellowhead’s sound is deeply steeped in everything from Jazz and Funk to Rockabilly and the riotous cacophony of a marching band.

Produced by John Leckie (Radiohead, Stone Roses, Rodrigo Y Gabriela) Hedonism is the third effort from the eleven-piece. Whilst lacking the immediacy of previous efforts, this record is still inventive and instantly infectious as it twists and turned from edgy brass numbers such as the re-worked seventeenth century folk ditty ‘A-Begging I Will Go’ to the bold dramatic ‘Brel’s Amsterdam’.  Meanwhile the punk folk sensibilities of ‘Little Sally Rackets’ and the polka swing, quivering fiddle and frenzied drumming of ‘New York Girls’ see Bellowhead really experiment with unique, intricate arrangements.

Euphoric and electric, Bellowhead’s re=inventions of tradition folk songs are as diverse as they are contagious, making Hedonism well worth a spin.

Author: Lauren Down