Red Snapper - Key

Red Snapper are back with a new album, their first in well over a decade and it's fantastic! Funk explodes out the speakers, double time percussion skitters here and there in a cathartic exposition of graceful power. If this is going to be what they rest their laurels on, they could have done no better. There's an intuitive groove throughout all the tracks on 'Key' and sometimes it even approaches post-rock deconstructionism. The sax work on here gives you all the feel of drunkenly racing through the Paris streets in a cab driven by an narcoleptic insomniac. This is quite a treat to imbibe, wildly imaginative arrangements are the order of the day and get this, some members of the band even provide vocals. Who knew they could bring it to such a new high, it's like they were never gone.

Squarepusher may be the one who gets all the press but Red Snapper are what the legendary Dif Juz would have evolved into had they not come apart at the end of the 1980s. The level of musicianship is exquisite, this lot bounce concepts and instrumental prowess off of one another with a fiercely fluid agility. I imagine that if John Coltrane had had access to this equipment, his classic quartet would have been him in a room full of magic boxes. Get ready to seriously groove because Red Snapper are in control of the bandstand, running amok with the conductor's baton while giddily grinning like the proverbial Cheshire Cat. That this took so long to come out is hardly the fault of the band, they split up in 2002 and somehow the musical press chose to gloss over it, apparently this group didn't warrant the attention. After getting our appetites whetted with the 'Pale Blue Dot' ep in 2008 it didn't look like any album would come about but did it ever.

The fellows of Red Snapper sound as they always have: undefinable.

I'm running around listening to this record all throughout the day and it suits every mood, every situation. The precision of synthetic gear meshes seamlessly with a band who are doing this for the sheer pleasure of creative exploration. It's impossible to sit still while 'Key', oh that all dance music had this level of devious malice. I'm gobsmacked, utterly dazzled at this gorgeous entry... a mark of the truly great is their ability to transcend time and trends. Red Snapper come up aces on all counts, welcome back lads. Jul 12 2011