Last Of The Charanguistas - The Epstein Album Review

The Epstein - Image: link

Album Review

Brits do Americana as good as, er, Americans. Nearly.

Taking on the Yanks at their own game is a bold move.

It's pretty obvious that The Epstein have been working diligently on this excellent debut album, played by a band of very talented multi-instrumentalists. This collection has plenty of variety to keep you glued from start to finish. The Oxford quintet certainly brew up a storm from the off with dazzling punch and confidence. Black Dog (not to be confused with a Led Zep song of the same name) is a brilliant introduction to their effervescent music which draws heavily of the rootsy country-folk template. The mass of adrenalin is guaranteed to get you bopping around at your local hoedown with the infectious beat layered with sliding steel guitar, sizzling banjo breaks and handclap effects aplenty filling the air with a dusty groove. It's not all blood and thunder though, as the reflective sweeping Charanga Classica proves.

On it there's some blistering solo work by Stefan D. Hamilton. Thunder River's complexity is refreshing with the bluesy - country referenced The Dress She Wore showing they're not just gearing themselves up as a freewheeling dance band. The centre point of this album is the stomping Latino inflected Dance The Night Away, something The Mavericks would be proud of. It has a pulsating beat, as you'd expect, with splashes of snorting brass and wailing guitar. This is followed by a cute but spooky Twin Peaks-like short instrumental 6:06pm.

Leave Your Light On is a sweet love ballad, highlighted by angelic backups, making it one of their strongest songs, with the band almost ghosting their instrumentation allowing Olly Wills to feature the vocal.

Getting all loved - up with the deeply countrified I'll Be Gone, they exhibit some brilliant guitar work on both electric and slide. Blues heavy Just The Wind returns to the Latino flavour, dropping in some mind-boggling axe work once again. Rounding off a very meritorious effort, they dig deep into the country pile on drifting ballad NYC blues with banjo and pedal steel dripping like honey.

There is a small point to be added here. Considering the idea for this type of band was conceived by Olly Wills in Wyoming, it may have been better produced in the States to give it a truer Americana flavour.

A minor criticism, but one worth mentioning.

File under : Excellent start to a promising career.

Elly Roberts