COMPOSERS: Led Bib
LABELS: Cuneiform
WORKS: Bring Your Own
PERFORMER: Mark Holub (drums), Liran Donin (bass), Toby McLaren (keyboards), Chris Williams, Pete Grogan (saxophones)
CATALOGUE NO: 314
Led Bib’s last album, Sensible Shoes, nearly won the Mercury Prize in 2009. Although the band missed getting the gong, they garnered much attention and well-deserved praise, plus the kudos of jamming on Channel 4 news. Surely, the only way was down? However, Bring Your Own is, if anything, even more impressive. All the more so, since according to the band members the album references every element from their seven-year existence: their backgrounds include heavy metal, jazz and improv.
Bring Your Own is already an unofficial hit on the basis of radio airings of the white-label promo. That, and the single-to-be ‘Is That a Woodblock?’ with its echoes of Jenkins-era Soft Machine and Pinski Zoo, should help the band break big this time. If you’ve heard them in person this recording won’t disappoint: the performances are as amiably in-your-face. Barry Witherden