Top Bar
Musique Machine Logo Home ButtonReviews ButtonArticles ButtonBand Specials ButtonAbout Us Button
SearchGo Down
Search for  
With search mode in section(s)
And sort the results by
show articles written by  
 Review archive:  # a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Renaldo and the Loaf - Long Time Coming [Klanggalerie - 2018]

Now here’s something you don’t often get- a punchy, varied, well-recorded & wholly enjoyable live record. Long Time Coming sonically chronicles the first every concert from British avant pop two-piece Renaldo & The Loaf, that happened last year in Vienna. The CD brings together the bands complete live set of fourteen tracks- it works perfectly as both a primer/ celebration of this band's fairly unique sound, as well as a effective flowing album- live or otherwise!.

Renaldo and the Loaf started their sonic life on the south coast of UK in the naval city of Portsmouth in 1979- bringing together Renaldo Malpractice (aka Brian Poole) & Ted the Loaf (aka David Janssen). The pair brew-up a bizarre, surreal & fairly distinctive blend of avant-grade pop, wonky (off) world music, and general sonic quirkiness. The projects initially run was between the years 1979 & 1988, then they regrouped again in 2006- going on in 2016 to release their extremely worthy come-back album Gurdy Hurding (also on Klanggalerie).

The CD is presented in a glossy fold-out six panel mini gatefold- which takes in a selection of shots from the bands live performance and a short write up about how/when the concert happened. All making for a fairly sparse, but effective bit of packaging. 

The album nicely jumps around the pair back catalogue in a nicely consistent, varied yet balanced manner. So we open up with "BPM", from their 'official' 1981 debut Songs For Swinging Larvae- this begins as a creepy & reverberating drone, before slowly building up with the pace with circulating harmonic churns, Renaldo's buoyant-getting- manic vocals, tight beat textures, and chopping fairground like chimes & organ runs. By track three we’ve moved onto a track from the pairs comeback album Gurdy Hurding- and this comes in the form of "Scent Of A Turnip"-  with it’s skittering electro hurdy-gurdy textures, wailing & waving harmonies singing ‘Mash it up Sniff it in’,  and weird flute 'n' manic guitar scuttle breakdown. At the album's midpoint we set down on a track from the band's second album 1983’s Arabic Yodelling, and this is "Green Candle"- here we find a mixture galloping & clip-clop beat textures & Arabic flavoured jaunting organ- all topped with a vocal line that shifts from spoken & mysterious-to-manic & high. With track ten, we’ve seemingly get a previously unreleased track in the form of "Corset Vendor"- which is a sort of blend of woozy Alien rag-time, and unsettling psycho ambience- with ribs of jaunting harpsichord, and Renaldo singing ‘Lace me up, as tight as you can’. The shows encore is possible one of the pairs most deranged & oddly  danceable moments "Hambu Hodo", from the 1987 album Elbow Is Taboo- which finds Renaldo performing a rather wonderful of mixture of deranged chanting, bizarre throat singing, and sing-song vocals, over a bounding & rounding bass line, and snapping-to-bounding percussion- a perfect end to a near perfect record- which is certainly to leave one with a slightly manic smile on their face.

I can’t think of many/any bands who have released a great comeback record like Gurdy Hurding, then gone onto release an equally great live album a few years after- but that’s exactly what Renaldo and the Loaf have done with Long Time Coming. Hats off to Mr Pool &  Mr Janssen for such a great show, and well done for Klanggalerie for arranging the show & putting this CD out.

Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5

Roger Batty
Latest Reviews

Renaldo and the Loaf - Long Time...
Now here’s something you don’t often get- a punchy, varied, well-recorded & wholly enjoyable live record. Long Time Coming sonically chronicles the ...
290324   Piranha - Piranha(DVD)
280324   Typhoon Club - Typhoon Club(B...
270324   Jerzy Skolimowski Collection ...
260324   Latex Choker - Sealed
260324   Occlusion - 59: No Input Wall
260324   Nihil Impvlse - Anabasis
260324   Marta Forsberg - Sjunger För...
260324   The New Boy - The New Boy( Th...
250324   The Stargazer’s Assistant - ...
250324   Liza Lim - Annunciation Trip...
Latest Articles

The Music of Clay Ruby & Burial H...
Over the last couple of decades Wisconsin native, Clay Ruby has been creating some of the world’s finest dark electronic music under the Burial Hex mon...
280324   The Music of Clay Ruby & Buri...
290224   Sutcliffe No More - Normal Ev...
100124   Occlusion - The Operation Is...
181223   Best Of 2023 - Music, Sound &...
051223   Powerhouse Films - Of Magic, ...
181023   IO - Of Sound, Of Art, Of Exp...
210923   Lucky Cerruti - Of Not so Fri...
290823   The Residents - The Trouble W...
110723   Yotzeret Sheydim Interview - ...
250523   TenHornedBeast - Into The Dee...
Go Up
(c) Musique Machine 2001 -2023. Twenty two years of true independence!! Mail Us at questions=at=musiquemachine=dot=comBottom