Friday, 29 June 2012

Record Review - The Bamboos

Published in the Metro Section of the Sydney Morning Herald, June 29.


The Bamboos
Medicine Man 
Inertia Recordings
two out of five

With fifth full-length release Medicine Man, Melbourne nine-piece The Bamboos have delivered a mixed bag.  The raw funk and real, old soul they exuded in their early days is still prevalent, but it seems to play second fiddle to a slew of pop-esque numbers which lack the urgency and rough-edged realism of their counterparts.

Whether or not the band are making a run at a more accessible sound I don’t know, but where this record really shines is in the funky grooves and heavy beats of tracks like ‘I Got Burned’ featuring a falsetto-singing Tim Rogers, ‘Cut Me Down’ and ‘What I Know’, both with vocals from powerhouse Kylie Auldist.  In comparison, the rest of the record seems like filler which, while finely executed, has nothing on the funk ‘n’ soul.

Samuel J. Fell

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