jackhammer

The album opens with Cotton Wool and the twisted Jazz influenced drum sequences subvert your ear drums with a non linear time signature. You know that this is no by-the-numbers band. A duo that specialised in an Electronic sound that dragged in Drum n Bass, Jazz, Trip Hop and Acoustic ambience to create one of the most original bands of the 1990's. Andy Barlow was the man behind the machines. Creative, wild and always looking for that beat that did'nt quite fit the music. Lou Rhodes was the woman who shaped Andy's ever escalating musical experimentation. A sinewy, gentle yet quietly powerful voice juxtaposed against sharp jagged electronica. Yet it worked.

This seemingly diametrically opposed musical style create confusion and abrasion and yet also syncopated in some of the finest acoustic tinged electronica you will hear. Gabriel is hauntingly beautiful with lyrics that tear at your heart while Gorecki lulls you into aural serenity before building a crescendo like a tidal wave battering the beach that you only glimpsed at earlier.

Just when you think that emotions are the byword and the band have slipped into a comfort zone, B Line and Bonfire trash that notion. B Line peddles a Jazz rythmn before exploding with energy, whilst Bonfire sets a sedate pace before slowly morphing into a dark beast with a simple keyboard note creating a sense of foreboding.

A band that unfairly got lumped into a Trip Hop bracket in the 90's which was just a lazy excuse to pigeonhole any band that relied on emotive vocals and Electronica. Lamb were always more than that. A reverence to Jazz and in Barlow, Classical themes and motifs (Lullaby) were more of a hindrance to them and a refusal for hooks and conventional melodies cost them artistic success but gained them cult status.

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