by Dave Franklin

Created on: January 24, 2007   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

Although this album is listed as being by Southwick's punk poet extraordinaire, it is in fact a wider collaboration than the cover at first glance suggests. A quick look at the "who played what" section on the back of the CD will reveal that although Attila does indeed front the band contained herein, the bulk of the members are actually from The Fish Brothers. The Fish Brothers (not to be confused with the car dealership of the same name) are a sort of Victorian music hall meets punk outfit, which must be seen to be believed. Anyway the point is guitar, bass and drum duties are handled by these madmen. The fifth member of the band is Mr Tim O`Tay who contributes recorder playing to the proceedings. Recorders in a rock band are you mad? All will become clear.

After years of peddling his own brand of angst ridden and political poetry and musicianship as a solo performer, in more recent years John Baine to give his actual name has worked as part of a full band fronting the category-defying Barnstormer. Just a look at some of the instruments credited here will give some indication that this is not the usual derivative and predictable rock music. Violin, okay that's not that unusual, Mandocello, well certainly different but a tenor crumhorn, surely they have made that up. No I assure you it's not only a real instrument but also it features quite prominently on a number of tracks.

As the opening track, Bombarde begins with a mournful lone drummer beating an executioners time you are get the feeling that you are being whisked away to the seventeenth century. A few bars in the tenor crumhorn nails your feelings on the head and you could almost be a spectator at Charles I execution. The mix of these older sounds mixes with the modern electric bass sounds and a recorder and Barnstormer reveal one the more unusual side to their work. This instrumental number is followed by a second and by now you could be forgiven for thinking that you had been conned into buying a Baroque pub band time shifted from the Goose and Gridiron or the Mermaid Tavern or one of those historical drinking dens. But just when you are getting to grips with this style, the pace has moved up a notch and the violin is carrying an upbeat jig, Barnstormer do the unexpected, they present us with something more normal. The historical is put away and a semi-punk rock song appears on the scene, The Blandford Forum. Everyone is back on their familiar ground. The Fish Brothers contingent is playing punk and

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