LEFT HAND RIGHT HAND's latest CD, 2 years in the making, captures the group at a high point, with their best line-up yet; brothers ANDREW and TIM BROWN augmented by long term collaborators CHARLIE COLLINS, who played in Clock DVA during the influential Thirst/White Souls period, and whose characteristic haunting horn and synth playing flows throughout the CD; and the equally legendary KARL BLAKE, founder of Lemon Kittens (with Danielle Dax) and Shock Headed Peters, bass player with Left Hand Right Hand since 1988. Also involved are Q, percussionist with In the Nursery, and vocalist KATHY HULME, from the Smart Bombs (formerly the Honkies) who toured with the group for the first time in 1994. The material on 'IN MUFTI' is an uncharacteristically playful mix of instrumental pieces, with some verging on becoming 'songs', although the Brown Brothers' strictly unconventional approach to arrangement, and unorthodox modes of playing make the sound like nothing else on earth. Perhaps the group's most accessible release to date, with greater stress on vocalisations than before, Left Hand Right Hand pieces are still dark places to be. The backbone of the Left Hand Right Hand sound is the fluent, interwoven percussion, played in real time throughout. Oblique references to mid-Eastern, African, Asian drumming collide in an unpredictable way and the result has been described as 'truly international music for the turn of the millenium' and a 'constant voyage of discovery'. The Brown Bothers skills on other instruments such as violin and guitar further betray their obvious enjoyment in manipulating sound as well as preconceptions 'IN MUFTI' is a studio album that manages to capture something of the looselimbed power of Left Hand Right Hand's live set. It also gives an oppurtunity to bring in other, subtler elements - for example a greater harmonic range than before. 'IN MUFTI' is not a concept album - the term means 'in off duty clothes' - but nevertheless it suggests a narrative in the form of imaginary landscapes. Left Hand Right Hand's music is highly filmic, as well as being laced with understated humour. On 'IN MUFTI' Left Hand Right Hand 'don civvies' and the result is, as ever, unique.
		LEFT HAND RIGHT HAND 'In Mufti' format: CD catalogue number: eee 33
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