TRIBECASTAN

5 Star Cave EverGreene Music 004

The word from TriBeCaStan's mandolin-plucking founder John Kruth was that this second album from New York's global/ folk/ jazz ensemble was going to have a rockier sound. This sent alarm bells ringing, as much of the charm of Strange Cousin, the TriBecs debut CD from last year, lay in its lightness and simplicity. Did we really want this smothered in sweaty swathes of bulldozer guitar? Well, fortunately those alarm bells can be pretty much silenced, because 5 Star Cave shimmies along in the pleasingly quirky footsteps of its predecessor. Yes there are some interesting new additions to the group's oddball menagerie of sounds, the opening When Tito Had Two Legs for example, comes across like some kind of mutant global twangy instrumental with multi-instrumentalist Jeff Greene on what's billed as 'surf sarod'. Yes, the lopsided humour is still in place, the melodies are still the main event and the arrangements constantly surprising, but firmly on the right side of 'clever for clever's sake'.

Dizzy In The Dunes is, as its title suggests, a swingy jazz goes Middle East type of thing, (I Drove My Car Down To) Baja has Greene on Don Cherry style overtone flute and organ from legendary guest Al Kooper, whilst Kali's Sister is limber and funky with Steve Turre's trombone adding extra heft. With 18 short-ish tracks crammed into 65 minutes there's a lot to take in and only a slower, folky song fails to hit the spot. Inevitably, things aren't quite so out-of-the-blue fresh as first time round, but this is still as good a sound as is doing the rounds at the moment.