Easily the most adventurous and audacious outfit on today’s UK jazz scene, Led Bib has built a reputation over the course of seven albums for expansive improvs and treks into genre-defying music of throbbing intensity. All Music Guide called their singular brand of jazz “explosive enough to blow up your speakers” while The Wire weighed in with: “This is the sound of a band having fun...like a hot chainsaw through butter.” For their RareNoise Records debut, the five-piece group from London continues pushing the envelope on Umbrella Weather.
Fueled by the muscular drumming of ringleader Mark Holub and the savage fuzz bass lines of Liran Donin, further tweaked by atmospheric washes and crunchy keyboard comping from Toby McLaren and sparked by the pungent twin alto saxes of Peter Grogan and Chris Williams, Led Bib stakes out a unique spot in the musical terrain that falls somewhere between the realms of John Zorn, Ornette Coleman, Peter Brotzman and Eric Dolphy while also registering on the Slayer end of the Richter Scaler.
From the odd-metered opener “Lobster Terror” to their raucous skronking on “Too Many Cooks,” from the fuzz-inflected mayhem of “Skeleton Key to the City” to the turbulent “At The Shopping Centre,” the expansive 50-minute ambient jam on “Insect Invasion” and the surprisingly lyrical waltz-time closer “Goodbye,” this renegade outfit never fails to inject an element of surprise into each potent track. And while certain pieces like “Ceasefire,” “The Boot” or the groove-heavy “Women’s Power” may seem like well-crafted and tightly executed compositions, Holub explains that most of the music heard on Umbrella Weather comes about organically in the studio through a keen sense of collective intuition honed over the past 13 years of playing together. “In general, very little is written. We are mostly working in a fairly typical jazz style of head-solos-head but in almost every tune the solos are completely open. This concept of free improvisation is a tricky one because it has become a genre all its own, but we are looking at it in a different way. With some of the tunes, we are sort of composing in the moment, rather than the sort of free association that is often thought of as free-improv. I think that approach is something we have developed to the point that we never really discuss what is going to happen in the improvising. We just let it go.”
You can hear that kind of spontaneous composition from track to track throughout Umbrella Weather, along with several scintillating solos that push well beyond the conventions of straight ahead jazz and into a place described by one writer as “dangerous and compelling.” Says Holub, “I am always interested in musicians who explore their own language, rather than just players who are 'good' on their instrument. And I think Led Bib has always been about a collective sound rather than an impressive instrumental band, or something being somehow overly clever like much modern jazz.”
Led Bib formed in 2003 as Holub’s masters degree project at Middlesex University. “We went through quite a few different people at the very beginning, but by the time of our first release in 2005 (Arboretum, SLAM Productions) the line up was set and hasn't changed since,” he explains. Holub runs down the backgrounds of his Led Bib colleagues:
“Chris Williams is perhaps the most involved in the 'jazz' scene of all of us, though this is definitely more on the contemporary side. And with bands like Let Spin, Metamorphic and others as well as that, he works a lot outside of jazz too, from experimental rock to ska and whatever.
Liran Donin works a lot as a producer outside of Led Bib doing stuff with other jazzers, but also in the realms of pop music and world music, most notably recently with Namvula Rennie, who seems to be getting a lot of interest in the UK. At the start of Led Bib he was also my partner in crime, with similar interests in things like Zorn and Mr. Bungle. Toby McLaren is also working as a producer, mostly in the rock world. He also plays keyboards for The Heavy, a sort of soul rock band that does quite well in the USA. He seems to be over there all the time these days! And Pete Grogan is running his own soul band as well as playing lots of sessions in that genre. He is also working as an arranger, both in a soul style and on more traditional jazz gigs too.”
Holub’s own penchant for playing rock influenced jazz, or vice versa, came about over time. As he explains, “When I first started playing jazz, I was coming more from the sort of jam band/experimental rock stuff....Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart. And then I got more into the free jazz of the ‘60s, particularly Ornette Coleman, but also Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus and Miles Davis. Then when I got further on I started listening more to the downtown scene in NYC, particularly John Zorn and Tim Berne, which I would say at the start was a big influence on Led Bib, though perhaps less so now. These days I am working a lot in freely improvised music, but also in other bands which are somewhere between rock and jazz.”
The two-alto frontline of Grogan and Williams is perhaps the distinguishing characteristic of this punk-edged jazz group. “The idea came about just by chance,” says Holub. “Someone suggested another alto player and I thought, ‘Hey, two altos! That could work!’ I think I liked the sort of 'ugly beauty' of that combo. There is something harsh about having the two altos together, which is great for when the music is heavy. But also, there is something almost bittersweet about the crashing of timbres between the two of them in the quieter moments. And with Chris and Pete playing, there is such a character to both of their playing -- and they both play so differently -- that I think it really works.”
Since its inception 13 years ago, this renegade jazz band has evolved to the controlled cacophony and ‘ugly beauty’ that we hear on Umbrella Weather. “Over time I think Led Bib has moved quite far away from my original vision,” says Holub. “It has become very much a group project with it being as much influenced by the other guys’ interests, but I am still steering the ship. To me, that is what has made Led Bib special, that the sound has been a natural evolution, which has naturally taken on everyone's ideas and influences rather than something which has been pre-determined to sound in a specific way.”
credits
released January 20, 2017
1. Lobster Terror 5:37
2. Ceasefire 5:33 ****
3. On The Roundabout 10:13
4. Fields of Forgetfulness 5:42
5. Too Many Cooks 2:10
6. Women's Power 6:56 **
7. Insect Invasion 6:50
8. At the Shopping Centre 7:11
9. Skeleton Key to the City 7:06 ***
10. The Boot 5:15
11. Marching Orders 7:31 *
12. Goodbye 4:58 **
Mark Holub – Drums
Liran Donin – Bass
Toby McLaren – Keyboards
Pete Grogan – Alto Saxophone
Chris Williams – Alto Saxophone
All compositions by Mark Holub except * by Chris Williams, ** by Liran Donin, *** by Pete Grogan and **** by Toby McLaren
Recorded by Chris Janka at Janka Industries Studio, Vienna, Austria 7 – 9 January 2016.
Mixed by Head at Ice House Studios, England February 2016 and at Real World Studios, Box, England 5 March 2016.
Mastered by Jason Mitchell at Loud Mastering, Taunton, England 23 March 2016.
Produced by Led Bib.
Additional production by Liran Donin.
Executive Producer for RareNoiseRecords : Giacomo Bruzzo
supported by 8 fans who also own “Umbrella Weather”
This is an amazing recording both musically and technically capturing some amazing musicians playing together to leave us something of wonder daveappleton
supported by 8 fans who also own “Umbrella Weather”
No one does music quite like Camille and Xavier do. I see their music as being akin to soundtracks for unfilmed movies. In this instance it is a movie about explorers of mountainous terrain, perhaps the terrain of our lives. Merci pour cette musique si intrigante. :-) sumbuk
supported by 7 fans who also own “Umbrella Weather”
My god, what an absolutely incredible Suite. I'll admit, I've struggled to get into Pharoah Sanders due to diving headfirst into some of his most challenging catalogue and that never worked. This is the perfect place to restart. Floating Points is new for me and I can honestly say I've never heard synthesizer music this lush and organic before. the LSO is just perfect. This is one of those albums that any serious music fan needs in their life. The perfect swan song for the great Pharaoh! 5/5 ClassyMusicSnob