BONFIRE RADICALS
Spaghetti Junction
Rapidly making their way onto and up festival billings around the country, the Birmingham six piece are easy to categorise. They are at the epicentre of a Venn diagram of overlapping circles containing English Folk , dance music of the Balkans, Klezmer, fiddle tunes of the Shetlands, South African highlife grooves, Brazilian vibes, psych rock, and honest to goodness folk n roll, all delivered with a fearsome energy, a joyous spirit, a tremendous amount of fun and a whole heap of instrumental brilliance.
Now onto the third release, they’re intertwined music journeys are distilled into Spaghetti Junction, reflecting their own native labyrinthine network where tradition and originals both criss cross and run side-by-side, making the title an apt description of the journey the listener is about to take.
This is not a listen to take lightly. The energy within will pick you up shake you about, leave you breathless but wanting to repeat the exercise whilst upping the volume in order to share it with the neighbours.
That said, besides the collision of musical ideas, there is also range of tempo and texture. Instrumentals they may all be, barring the beautifully multilayered Birmingham Rain featuring The Choir With No Name, but who needs words when you are having this much fun?
As one might expect, there are stories behind the tunes. Opening track Balkan Replacement Service, written by Pete Churchill and Katie Stevens, apparently originated during a lunch break at HMP Birmingham, though given the way that it introduces the album by hitting you right between the eyes, you do wonder what was on the menu. The titles themselves give you no real cues as to the nature of the tracks they identify. Northern Lights may thread the expected Norwegian and Swedish dance elements but then by their own admission, it takes a swing through Afrobeat, South African highlife and sub-Saharan groove. Continuing the theme, what would you imagine something called Im Tocht Lang Tae See Dee or Krim Krams Rucenica are going to sound like. Our only recommendation is to have a listen and find out – the former will leave you reeling and the intro to the latter will give you time to catch your breath before the mayhem returns. However chaotic things may appear to be, the ability to navigate the twists turns and bewildering directions of their influences yet still end up at an intended destination is testament to both their vision and their musicality.
Whether you’re a ethnomusicologist or just someone looking for a good time, both the album and the band will deliver and both are equally well named. File under wonderful.
Visit the Bonfire Radicals website
Spaghetti Junction