Bloody Nonsense The Jazz Butcher Polygram

By JEFF BURTT

The Jazz Butcher and his aptly-named cohorts, the Sikkorskis From Hell, offer up on Bloody Nonsense a collection of bright, tuneful and unabashedly groovy pop songs.

Eschewing a commercially viable, formulaic approach, the Butcher and his daredevil chums attack everything from the jazzy, soulful meanderings of the opener, "The Human Jungle," to the all out rocker, "Death Dentist." This casual outburst of styles reveals a concern for texture and mood as opposed to simple verse — chorus song structure.

The record spawns the sublime and the (wonderfully) ridiculous. "Big Saturday" is a gorgeous, upbeat ballad which underpins its heart warming lyric with bittersweet guitar and warbling bass progressions; the band’s natural sense of timing here creates a dynamic thrust equal to the song’s emotional impact.

"Girlfriend" presents an amphetamine-blurred Dire Straits while “Caroline Wheeler’s Birthday Present” — made "entirely from the skins of dead Jim Morrisons... that’s why it smelt sooo bad" — is as deranged a thrasher as could be imagined.

These disparate styles are all immensely successful. The lush musical arrangements and twin guitars of the Butcher and his sidekick Max Eider propel the songs forward with a rhythmic and melodic quirkiness which positively leaps forth from the grooves.

The band’s campy sense of fun, with such dedication to dementia now being so rare and unfashionable, is innovative musically and tremendously invigorating. Bloody Nonsense exposes the Jazz Butcher at the height of his powers. This is a release that shouldn’t miss being checked out

Bloody Nonsense

The Jazz Butcher and his group are not in the business of belonging; they are too old and too obstreperous to conform to some attention-seeking image or commercially viable formula. Rather, they bring their not inconsiderable talents to bear on whatever happens to be in the way at the time. The results can only be described as essential.

BigTime