‘Hyena’, Red Snapper’s seventh album, has as its starting point a soundtrack the band did for a 1970s Senegalese road movie recently restored by Martin Scorsese. That explains the band’s preoccupation with Afro rhythms and guitars, which lend a distinctive colour to their already inventive beat work and jazz-inspired lines. A lot going on then, but it’s easy to listen to – the laid back grooves of ‘Mamberty’ and ‘Village Tap’ being cases in point. Tom Challenger delivers some expert sax playing over the jagged funk of ‘Dock Running’, with its remarkably flexible bass, and shows admirable control elsewhere too. ‘Archout’ is a fast, dubby number, while the cinematic roots shine through most clearly in ‘Lassoo’, which sounds wary, and the closing ‘No Exit’, which appears to bring a bit of David Lynch into the mix, the sound of closing credits blended with a bit of Twin Peaks. Recommended listening, and even better on widescreen.
4 out of 5
Reviewed By Ben Hogwood
