Archie Bronson Outfit, London Roxy

February 22, 2010

The casual gentleman, taking an evening on stroll along London’s Borough High Street, would be forgiven for noting the Roxy and passing on by, suspecting it to be both expensive and designed to appeal to those Londoners, whoever they might be, who don’t like pubs.  In fact this is London’s best-concealed cinema where fine films are exhibited to those who can put up with the drink prices.  On a Tuesday evening in late February the screening room is playing host to a high proportion of men in full beards and faded baseball caps, tell-tale signs of something afoot. The Archie Bronson Outfit are back in town equipped, if the rumours could be believed, with an album even better than the particularly tight and rocking Derdang Derdang.

The Outfit are launching Coconut, with an accompanying selection of videos screened to a packed room, and it’s all seriously impressive stuff.  Derdang Derdang is a much loved record, but restricted by its rockabilly template which walls the music off from variations in tone.  Coconut tackles these shortcomings head-on, taking itself a little less seriously, loosening the grooves and letting in a lot more funk.  Track one, ‘Magnetic Warrior’, kicks in with a guitar groove that harks proudly back to the days of early 90s indie and PJ Harvey’s ‘Dry’.  The video, a cut-out re-animation of A Matter of Life and Death, is a masterpiece of self-deprecating silliness.

In fact, this turns out to be the defining theme as the next track, ‘Shark’s Tooth’, a casually brilliant song surely born of an active interest in exotica and surf guitar, is performed in someone’s garage decorated with tin foil and plastic flowers.  The same garage returns in ‘Wild Strawberries’, but this time the band wears Invisible Man bandages.  ‘Hoola’, for obvious reason, is accompanied by a plastic brain attacking London via some very low production values, while the backing vocals sigh over unsettled guitar and keyboards. ‘Bite It and Believe’ cunningly reduces the production budget still further by using on a rotating image of singer Sam Windett’s magnificent bearded features.  ‘Hunt You Down’ is more gentle than its title would suggest, and its awesome dinosaur-themed video makes good use the concrete creatures of Crystal Palace Park. ‘Chunk’ dives down a world music dead-end, and the audience seem non-plussed by the accompanying video of a man doing ‘comedy’ dancing.  However, this is a minor blemish. The album is essential, a real step forward, and the films are a delight.  Do yourself a favour: get into the Outfit.

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