Wizards Of Twiddly: People With Purpose

Martin Smith, who is the trumpet player in Wizards Of Twiddly once described his group as "A jazz band with a heavy metal guitarist" and indeed it is an apt description, but one that really doesn't do the fantastic, smart music produced on People With Purpose justice. Take that quote and add a sprinkling of King Crimson, a dash of Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and a big thick slice of Franz Zappa and you may well be a little of the way to working out what this mad, but perfectly focused jazz rock quintet are aiming at. Whatever the description, or label that you try to place on this band, the important thing is that from start to finish, this comeback from Liverpool, England's Wizards Of Twiddly is bloody excellent!

Kicking off with the gloriously melodic burst of trumpet and sax of title track is a joyous smack and while it may not fully prepare you for the journey ahead, the sound is simply phenomenal as it belts out of your speakers. Think of a funky seventies cop show theme and you won't actually be a million miles off, but they certainly didn't have the musical smarts or aural thwack that is present here. From there we are off on a manic jaunt through blaring horns, enigmatically sung/spoken vocals and frenzied bursts of guitar, which is all tied together with the deepest rhythmic grooves you could hope for. From the throbbing bass and chanted chorus of "Cardboard Banjo", to the trumpet led swagger and threatening Johnny Rotten vocal delivery of "Adverse Camber", the music is completely captivating and challenging, yet somehow amazingly accessible. Lyrically too songs titles like "Anti-Tank Tank" and "Big, Bigger, Bigot" leave you in no doubt that Twiddly are tackling some important issues, but don't expect me to actually have a handle of what they are trying to say, with the words being as happily obtuse as the melodies they work over. Take the spoken word section of the uber-grooving maelstrom of "Cybernipple" as a perfect example, as if you can make head or tails of "...my electric steam car took me to meet my fifteenth wife, even though we never met. I loved her at second sight, the first was her mother. The rules said she wanted me after she divorced her brother by lethal injection...", then you are a better man than me! It all adds to the sense of perfectly neat chaos and organised madness that permeates through this album to leave a startling disturbed clarity of enjoyment and ultimately that's what matters. Isn't it? A majestic blending of styles and influences bounces through these rocked up jazz workouts that end up with songs that should appeal to anyone with a broad enough mind not to be constrained by one single genre.

Mad, bad and dangerously addictive, Wizards Of Twiddly have come up with something verging on insanity, but in a way that is wonderfully coherent and joyously carefree, while taking itself rather seriously, which is a clever, neat and difficult trick to pull off, especially with this ease.

Track Listing
1. People With Purpose
2. Just Above Your Thing
3. Cardboard Banjo
4. Big, Bigger, Bigot
5. Sounds Of Success
6. Anti-Tank Tank
7. Hooverman
8. Interlude
9. Cyber Nipple
10. Adverse Camber
11. Bless This Tank
12. The Great Unwashed
13. Ping Pong Head
14. Burned Alive

Added: March 8th 2011
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Wizards Of Twiddly MySpace
Hits: 3498
Language: english

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