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Sackbutt
Artist: Horace X
Label: Omnium
Genre : Rock
Electronic
Instruments : Bass guitar
Clarinet
Drum kit
Electric guitar
Fiddle (violin)
Fiddle (violin), electric
Programming
Saxophone, baritone
Vocals
Vocals (male)
Geography : England
Label : Omnium - http://www.omnium.com
Description:
Think you've heard it all? Not until HORACE X.
Dayglo-techno-worldmusic, straight outta the multikulti melting pot of the UK. HX combine driving party beats with Eastern fiddle fragments, popping bass, honking sax, and the unstoppable ragga ranting of Simon X. Live, they're whipping crowds into a frenzy with their spinning dayglo stage show and indescribably delicious music stew.
Enhanced CD includes a live performance video.
Reviews
- "...this one sparks... which means it sounds like nothing I've heard. Nonstop dance drive, Roma clarinet jazz, violin sans bluegrass or sonata, ragga-flavored because the singer's Jamaican. Plus they named their debut after a medieval trombone normally spelled with one T. A MINUS" - Robert Christgau, Village Voice, 16 July 2003
- "...Damn fine..." -- John Peel, BBC
- "...jumped out of the speakers at me and is still doing it. A rampant mixture of Irish/Indian fiddles, Jazzy/Eastern European saxophones, Ragga ranting, samples and drumming that propels the whole thing at breakneck pace. It's not just another ragbag of musical styles slung together and underpinned by a set of dance floor beats. In fact, I don't know what it is. But it works wonders on jaded ears." -- freq.org.uk
- "It's a rare band that can make a jaded critic sit up and exclaim, "What in the heck…?&" With Sackbutt, Horace X manages to do it. It's not like the elements in Horace X's dance rock stew are anything that unusual; funk polyrhythms, folk fiddling, jazz fusion sax, raga vocals and electronic enhancements abound all over the music world. But somehow this band makes it all sound so…different. The British quintet not only draws its melodies and instrumentation from Celtic, Middle Eastern, African, Jamaican, American and Asian sources, it mixes and matches them so flawlessly it's nearly impossible to tell where one cultural influence ends and another begins. Between bassist Fabian Bonner and drummer/programmer Mark Russell's hip-shivering rhythms, fiddler Hazel Fairbairn and woodwind player Pete Newman's freeflowing melodies and frontman Simon Twitchin's caffienated ranting, the band's song never slow down long enough to be analyzed, and frankly, that's the way it should be. This is dance music, plain and simple; "Bad Lies," "Dreams—Half Empty" and "Nuff Megabyte" should get your feet moving, arms flailing and blood pumping in no time at all. No matter what its origins, Sackbutt will make your booty happy in no time. For fans of: Brooklyn Funk Essentials, Afro-Celt Sound System, the Klezmatics." -- Michael Toland, High Bias
- "A high-octane concoction...(it) might sound like a recipe for musical chaos, but these guys stir it all together with brilliantly bold panache..." -- Scottish Sunday Herald
- "...the sound of a dream you can't wait to have. Fast-moving, deeply grooving, sweat-inducing music...dense in a way that is immediately familiar to those of us living the wired life. This is a 'dense' that makes sense. This is dense you can dance to." -- Vancouver Folk Festival
- "First came the bass player, in a black shirt, with fluorescent orange suspenders and pants. Then the drummer -- coat, pants, and hat all made of alternating two inch bands of fluorescent green and black. The sax player wore more green, coat and hat -- and, of course, shades. Then the fiddler bounded in, her dress bright orange and clinging tight, with a single line of black wriggling its way down...and a headpiece made of dozens of scraps of what looked like crinoline in various fluorescents. ...I have never seen anyone who struck me so completely as so truly original." -- Green Man Review
- "Sometimes an album makes you want to leap around the room even if, like me, your boldest footwork is something like the 'Inertia Two-Step'. Horace X encourage all manner of movement and it's a treat for the ears too... ...one of the most exciting releases I've heard this year." -- Paul Donnelly,
Track List:
| 1 | Bad Lies | 4:48 | |
| 2 | Blind Eye | 5:24 | |
| 3 | Darkness Falls | 5:02 | |
| 4 | Mr Simms - Vampire Mix | 4:48 | |
| 5 | Dreams - Half Empty | 5:13 | |
| 6 | UK Cosmopolitan Sound | 5:04 | MP3 Download |
| 7 | Nuff Megabyte | 5:44 | |
| 8 | Izuaint | 4:13 | |
| 9 | Problems - Half Full | 5:10 | |
| 10 | Turkno YoYo (bonus track) | 4:35 |
Hearful Music - music to make your brain happy from the ESD, NorthSide and Omnium record labels.