Albany Down are on the way up! I saw the boys at the Hobgoblin, Staines
last night performing new tracks and laying down the beat. They are also
soon to be heading for the Purple Turtle and the Barfly in Camden, as
well as completing some new [free] streaming MP3 tracks.

The sound of Albany Down is stripped-down-to-the-waist no nonsense
rhythm and blues 70’s inspired Brit rock ( the feel of early Free or
John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers,) but with a bit of jazz-funk to mix it up a
little. The sensation is a bit like having an-honest to goodness pint of
ale in a pub with your best mates, whilst your girls are all up on the
dance floor bopping to Sly & the Family Stone ...the two things
shouldn’t go together but they really do. For example, the song “Baby
Where’d You Stay” is classic Stones sound through-and-through, yet we
all know how funky the Stones can sound- especially after a few large ones.

Paul Muir is the band vocalist ( he looks like a smaller version of
Clydebank born Marti Pellow - and he sounds like him too when he
introduces each song) ...but Paul needs to project his voice a good deal
more if he is to achieve clarity and intensity. If he wants to gain the
edge he needs to demand attention by lifting that voice to a new level.
Sometimes the vocals were lost inside the inter-woven musical themes,
which is a shame.

The large bruiser in the porkpie hat is the bassist Billy Dedman -his
bass play is fast and deadly in its earnest gusto. It is finger-lickin’
good too. Billy has a prowess for solid bass lines and a certain
reliability about him - but he also has the aptitude and dexterity for a
higher vision and pulled off some nifty bass solo pieces of his own.

Diminutive drummer Jonny Bescoby is as fast as the white water at the
Grand Rapids, after a particularly heavy shower. Many of the Albany Down
songs have a funky beat to them, so the drummer needs to have loose
wrists and a compassion and an understanding for rhythm with a grooving
back-beat. His musicianship brings to mind Blink-182’s Travis Barker in
style and ability, with an intrinsic understanding of agile rap-rock
box-beats that he adds to the rhythmic soundscape when required. But
Jonny is also reliable and prescient enough to provide reliable and
thunderous percussive downpours in the more conventional blues settings.

Paul Turley on lead guitar makes most of the magic happen up on stage.
Wearing the face of Jimi on his chest, but the smugness and charm of a
rogue city trader upon his countenance, he may be clean-cut and young
but his guitar-work speaks of generations of earthy blues players
cutting their thumbs on sharp chords and picking up the notes of barbed
tunes in an artful agony almost angelic in its anguish. He puts on a
very fine and accomplished performance with a few flaring Hendrix-style
licks and a chug-a-chug chord or two when things are brimming.

The surprise of the evening was the Steve Booker/Duffy number “Mercy”
played stripped down to the gun-metal and served with plenty of angst.
This and the crowd pleaser ‘The Morning After’ with its tribal thumping
(the feeling of drums banging in your head after a session... we know
don’t we kids?) were the musical highlights in an enjoyable set. Albany
Down can be counted on for pleasure and fun. Insistent guitar hooks,
stripped down licks and rattling good-time rock are all handed out to an
eager crowd like a kind of pass-the-parcel game full of authentic
British R&B sounds. Grab some and join in!

Neil Mach 2009