Larrikin Love, Brixton Academy, London
By Nick Hasted
29 December 2006
Independent
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Edward Larrikin shares the bohemian urchin image and yearning rock sound of The Libertines. But he dreams of "the Big Music", the inclusive vision proclaimed by The Waterboys' Mike Scott in the 1980s, which holds that genres of sound run into each other.
This has seen him participate in "grindie" (the splicing of the UK rap-style grime and indie), as well as taking on some of Scott's own Van Morrison-derived Celtic soul. His band Larrikin Love's debut album, The Freedom Spark, only hints at all this ambition. But he represents a healthy, renewed questing spirit in British pop. In the best sense, he has a hippie mind: unconventional, and dissatisfied.
Faced with the task of warming up an audience, as the support act to The Pogues at a far larger venue than they can yet command themselves, Larrikin Love's intellectual ambitions count for little, but a radical makeover of their album's songs, now played with trombones and fiddles, and uncalculated warmth, endear them to this crowd.
The stray cat rockabilly screech of "Edwould" goes down well, of course, but so does its old Yiddish dance elements. The weird shrieking fiddle and near-gibberish lyrics of "Cucumber" sees a girl in the band square-dancing. By contrast, "Well, Love Does Furnish a Life" is given a dropped-out ska beat, with the trombone as lead instrument. "Ribbon Dance Mews", with its train-track beat and stand-up bass, recalls the 1950s, until its discordant end. In truth, Larrikin's ideas remain partially formed: a freedom spark yet to fully catch light.
Larrikin Love play Frog at Kentish Town Forum, London NW5, on Sunday (020-7284 1001;
http://www.larrikinlove.co.uk)
Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 1:11 am
