Please note this is an old page and Fly Global Music has now moved. Please follow this link and search for the entry in the new site.

Maybe it’s the fact that the fiddle on opening track ‘A New Year’s Anxiety’ makes me think of The Levellers, while the funk that they’re so obviously trying to emulate on the same track sounds like nothing more than a lightweight imitation of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. And while it’s often hard to make out exactly what the lyrics are, references to war and other weighty subjects suggest that the band would probably name-check the meaningless platitudes of Faithless if asked to give their lyrical inspirations.

That’s not to say that this is an album completely lacking in worth. ‘Sunday’ brings to mind Beth Orton, with Flo’s beautiful vocals given room to breathe with a much more down-tempo backing than the slightly forced funk of a lot of the other tracks. And the mix of Gypsy Kings style guitar and Nathan’s scatter-gun rap works surprisingly well on ‘Decadence’. The band have a residency at Oliver’s Jazz Bar in Greenwich and I can see that tracks like this are probably an absolute blast live.

But ultimately this is an album review, not a live review, and while there are spots where all the disparate forces at play here gel well, for the most it just reminds you that others have ploughed a similar furrow in the past with much more success. Spearhead, the aforementioned Beth Orton and Quantic are just some of the acts that spring to mind. Ashok should probably go back to the drawing board and do a bit more planning if they want to make the leap from house band in a bar to serious recording artists.