BELLERUCHE – REFLECTION (Hippoflex)
February 28th, 2005 by rui
What follows is close to a balanced viewpoint. On the one hand, the funk and soul that Belleruche purvey is guided by a distinctly jazz aesthetic. This is an area of which your reviewer knows nothing and understands even less. When they start with the widdlin’ an’ a twiddlin’, I’m left wanting to run off and fetch me dad, who knows a great deal about such things, and might be able to enlighten me as to exactly what they’re up to. On the other hand, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know these three fresh-faced youngsters over the last few months, and I’m mightily impressed with their attitude. Following the lead of the true hip-hop and indie heroes, Belleruche got off their backsides to organise their musical lives by their own sweet selves. A long-running weekly residence at the Salmon and Compass in Islington has won them a fair handful of higher-profile gigs, and brought them to the point where they can confidently release this, their debut single.
And lo and behold!, on “Reflection” the jazz frippery has been brutally stripped away. What’s left is immediately arresting, a solid and beautifully warm slow groove. There isn’t a single unnecessary strum, squeak or warble from beginning to end. DJ Modest lives up to his monicker, evidence of his decks-terity tastefully backing up the beats. Ricky Fabulous’s guitar is also pared to the minimum, a rhythmic and melodic hook on which to hang kathrin deBoer’s honeydripping vocal. “It’s so easy, so simple, so beautiful” is the vibe, and we’re inclined to lie back and let it wash all over us. In a word, lovely. B-side “Bird Mess” is a kind of tribute to godfather of be-bop Charlie Parker. It’s more uptempo, and has bucketloads of the funky funk. Looking for ways to describe the production on this disc, I keep coming back to one word… warm. Everything about it is warm; it’s got “Big Chill fanbase” written all over it.
The 7″ has a great big hole punched in the middle, just like all those funk and reggae stormers with which Modest’s record boxes are jammed. The CD features a bonus instrumental of “Reflection”. Get yourself over to their website and get yourself a copy, and be the first on your block to get hip to something which is bound to get bigger soon.
Johnny Clash
Reflection is available now from www.belleruche.com
