Telling The Bees
Album: Steer By The Stars
Label: Black Thrustle
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.tellingthebees.co.uk

Telling The Bees is a now-quintet from the Oxford area who by all accounts have been creating quite a buzz (ha!) of late. Their repertoire is largely based around the quirky and intricate crafted songwriting of Andy Letcher. The TTB group sound is similarly unusual as well as highly crafted, qualities that indicate a group of musicians who have clearly been naturally and proudly collaborating together for some time while growing accustomed to the organic, jamming scenario as a means of evolving and expressing the songs.

Even though their music doesn't sound a lot like either of them per se, I can get something of the feel of both the Canterbury proggers Caravan and the new-English-classicists Spiro at various points during this, Telling The Bees' third album release. The not-exactly-commonplace instrumental textural blend of fiddle/viola (Jane Griffiths), cello (Josie Webber), anglo concertina (newest recruit Jim Penny), mandolin (Andy Letcher) and bass (Colin Fletcher) gives the outfit a full and aromatic sound, which compellingly retains an insistent sense of momentum and drive at all times. I was particularly impressed by Colin's keen and highly musical bass underpinning, but the standard of intuitive and complementary musicianship is extraordinarily high among all of the band members.

Andy's singing has a knowingly wistful tone (another feature that also calls to mind Caravan), with a comparable aura of gentle but canny understatement and yet also containing the ability to point the meaning with greater strength when required. His special narrative muse conjures mystery and imagination, not least through the creative interweaving of the traditional and the timelessly political - as on I Fear These Tory Radicals (a setting of John Clare - it appears 'twas ever thus!) - and also often displays a decidedly other-worldly perspective (Astrolabe) or world-wise commentary (Babylon). Closer to local tradition, we find the rousing, even rakish portrait of The Scholar Gypsy quite literally steering by the stars (think Matthew Arnold) and a stylishly reworked Oxford May Song, both displaying intense vitality. Very occasionally there's a slight sense that the arrangements are too clever for their own good, with distracting use of samples on a couple of tracks including the opening A Puppeteer Came Into Town, but for the most part any temptation to excess is reined in to give the lyrics their deserved head.

Finally, a special word of praise for Rima Staines' distinctive package artwork, a perfect reflection of the disc's contents with its intriguing mix of legend and astrology and hints of renaissance art and wider tradition.

David Kidman