Freaky Meat - Delicatessen

Following on from 2009's brilliant 'Monkey Shines ' single and the subsequent (and equally impressive) "Late night kebab" E.P from 2010 comes the first, fully self-funded album by neo-eclectic, Jazz beat fusion group Freaky Meat. 

This collection of material contains fresh studio recordings of established staples from the bands live repetoire as well as newer works that have been under development during the past two years. 

The band moves effortlessly between atmospheric narrative tracks like 'Te Henga in storm', rocking numbers like 'Sitting on the edge of your bed' and 'Zombie xmas hams' (winner of The Rock Factorys 2010 Mid winter Christmas song-writing competition) to the elegant brilliance of 'The lament of Paris' and the Jazzier 'Doors on the bus beat' featuring guest Sax by Micah Wolfe. And then, on the odd occasion, in the middle of a song, the band will totally switch gears and explore musical territories usually reserved for the sludgiest of Doom Metal albums.

Anyone who has ever seen Freaky Meat live will agree, the band are a tight force. The instrumental trio of Rod Redgrave (Bass), James Percy (Drums) and John McNab (Guitars) are an incredibly solid foundation and perfect platform for Shane Hollands' Poetry/spoken word/storytelling. Hollands often delivers his beatspeak with many hints of melody and a concise musicality that draws you in and mesmerizes you with its engaging style, substance and border-line genius qualities. Music and words interweave in a unique, satisfying and sometimes profound way. 

Not only is the subject matter often about travelling, but the well crafted music travels nicely too. Nothing feels like filler and the material has a natural flow with each piece proudly revealing its own flavours.  Worthy of note as well is that the recordings (mostly by The Rock Factory) are wonderfully organic and in many places they have a distinct, true, live feel. Only in a couple of rare places does this live "feel" slip into feeling slightly too produced, or rather, a little too polished. Not that there's anything wrong with that, at all.

This is a very strong, unique album from an extremely talented bunch of guys and if they're playing anywhere near you on their Nationwide album release tour in November i would strongly recommend you go and see the band perform these songs live.