Corduroy - Very Yeah - The Director's Cut: Complete Compositi [Cherry Red - 2013]In the Uk during the late 80’s to the early 1990’s a musical genre grew,developed,then briefly broke into the mainstream- and that genre was Acid Jazz. The form mixed together elements of jazz, funk and hip hop, particularly looped beats. To create an often 60’s & 70’s themed sound which was groovy, buoyant & sometimes playful. One of the most recognized & respected projects to appear from the Acid Jazz genre was London based four piece Corduroy, and this four disc box set brings together most of the bands released albums, along with a host of unreleased bonus tracks. Corduroy formed in 1991, and brought together brothers Ben Addison (drums/vocals) and Scott Addison(keyboards/vocals), with Simon Nelson-Smith( guitarist) & Richard Searle( Bass). The band existed between 1991 to 1999, with a brief reunion in 2007. During the bands existence they released six albums in all: Dad Man Cat, High Havoc, Out of Here, The New You!, Clik!, Quattro - Live In Japan. The bands sound was often focused towards 60’s/70’s film or TV show like sound tracking, and the project often had a quite fun or tongue-in-cheek manner to thier work, unlike the more goatee stroking pretentious Acid Jazz’s acts. This four disc set offers up the following releases: 1992’s Dad Man Cat,1993’s High Havoc,1994’s Out of Here, 1994’s Quattro - Live In Japan. And each disc(except the live album) features between four to nine bonus tracks a piece. The set comes in a colourful quite retro looking box, and each of the albums come in their own mini colour cardboard sleeves that reproduce each release original artwork. Also included in the is 16 page inlay booklet which takes two write-ups about the project from band members Richard Searle & Ben Addison, full albums details, band pictures & ticket/poster collages. So the first disc is taken up by 1992’s Dad Man Cat, which I guess you could say is the bands more strip & raw first release. The original album offered up 12 tracks, and this reissue offers bonus tracks that come in the form of six demo track versions of mainly album featured songs. All the tracks here are mostly up-beat mixers of jazz, funk with pinch of rocked out guitar work. They blend together up-front groovy organ work, smoking often wah-wah licked guitar work, tight ‘n’ funk bass lines, detailed yet seemingly effortlessly cool & buoyant percussion. The tracks either come off as funked-up cop themes, moody yet groovy spy soundtrack snippets, or just plain 60’s tinged instrumental club groove-outs Moving onto disc two, and we have 1993’s High Havoc. The original album offered up thirteen tracks, and as for extras on this disc we get very generous selection of nine bonus tracks, which take in rare & unreleased tracks, as well as different version of album tracks. The sound on this album is a lot more sophisticated and varied in both pace & mood, there is also the introduction of vocals too on a few tracks too- but many of the tracks still have a very soundtrack to feel. We go from jiving horn & organ Mod groove of “London England” that has a great harpsichord & funky bass breakdown. Onto the moody, simmering & shadowy funk rock jazz groove of “The Frighters”, which later brews up to a big & urgent chours. Over to the jaunting & swinging boss nova groove meets easy listening ‘bah-bahs’, & mellow vibe runs of “Something In My Eye”. Onto swinging 60’s soundtrack big band meets guitar strut & grooving organ kitsch of “Breakfast In Love”. For me this is the most consistent, cleverly conceived & memorable albums of this collection- though that’s not to say the other albums don’t have there moments too. Disc number three is taken up by 1994’s Out Of Here , and the original album featured twelve tracks, with seven bonus tracks on offer here. This album saw the bands sound developing once again, with the song structure having a lot more retro pop/ funk tinged rock sound through-out, with elements of soul, disco & up-beat easy listening. There is also a large use of vocals too, and the odd more 90’s modern touches like beats & synth, textures & in places more modern guitar sound. And I’m afraid to say I found much of this album a little too contrived & kitsch( in a bad way), clearly the band had there eyes on the mid 90’s uk pop chart with this album, as they tried to tool their retro fuelled towards a more populist sound- but for me it just seems to lack the soul, invention, and the real tongue-in cheek vibe of their best work. Last in the set we have Quattro(Live In Japan 1994), which as it’s title suggest is a live recording from 94, though it didn’t get released until 2001. This original album featured fifteen tracks, and this reissue doesn’t add in any extra tracks. The live set is well recording, with the band on great playful & up for it form, and the performance take in tracks from all of the bands album up to that point. As live albums go, this is most enjoyable, buoyant & smoking…and it makes for a great end to the boxset. On the whole this box is an enjoyable trip back to early 90’s Acid Jazz scene, and a celebration of one of the scenes more worthy, consistent & fun contributors. It certainly works as a great introduction to this scene, and it can be picked up direct from Cherry Red here for a cheap as chips price of £17.99 Roger Batty
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