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Love You / If I Don't Have To Answer / I Wonder Whether (Demo)
GENUINE RECORDS
Still resolutely stuck in a retro rock groove, Little Barrie return here with LOVE YOU, the first single to be lifted from their second album STAND YOUR GROUND.
A funky and soulful return, LOVE YOU is a riot of snappy riffs, shotgun drum stabs and perky melodies; pitched somewhere between Booker T and the MGs, Paul Weller and The Small Faces, this is Little Barrie not exactly reinventing the wheel, rather delivering more classy Mod moves and grooves. Flipside IF I DON'T HAVE TO ANSWER sticks to what they know also, another slinky Mod tune that fills the gaps between The Small Faces and The Beatles, whilst I WONDER WHETHER is a nifty tune complete with clipped guitar chords, snappy drum beats and funk fuelled bass lines.
Little Barrie have always been a band knocking out retro Mod, and its something left unchanged on their new material; LOVE YOU is hardly the most progressive or original sounding song you'll ever hear. Still, you've got to hand it to them, as purveyors of classy Mod go; Little Barrie are the top of the heap and by the sound of things, look likely to stay there for some time.
BIOGRAPHY
In a culture that celebrates excess it takes a true visionary to strip things back to the core energy. Little Barrie has that vision. Coming from a great tradition of less-is-more expression that has marked out all of the defining musical developments, they are worthy of a place alongside the true mavericks in the history of popular music.
Take Presley's earliest bride stripped bare blues-as-rock'n'roll shenanigans, or Bolan's simplified Glam boogie. Then there's Captain Beefheart's exploration of the blues reduced to their hidden psychotic core, James Brown's minimal expressions of R&B and gospel and Bootsy Collins' ability to bring funk down to the on-the-one bass line.The list is long and impressive. In fact, from the blues to hip hop, rock to electro, funk to techno, music's most powerful voices have come from those people who are prepared to strip away the excess and get back to the essence.
Meet Little Barrie, a trio whose entire ethos has lying at its heart a stripped-to-the-bone rootsy groove. Little Barrie consists of Barrie Cadogan (guitar and vocals), Wayne Fulwood (drums, backing vocals and sometime lead vocals) and Lewis Wharton (bass). Together the trio fuses numerous influences, boiling them down to a core sound that evades simple categorization and avoids mere historical naval gazing.
"We Are Little Barrie," their 13-song strong debut, was recorded over the course of 23 afternoons in Edwyn Collins' London studio with Edwyn himself at the controls and even playing on a couple of songs.
Edwyn declares Little Barrie as: "astonishingly mature in their references and ability... Barrie himself is really quite inspirational, probably the best guitarist of his generation."
Continues Edwyn, "In fact on my last album I'd got into contemporary cut and paste studio techniques and hung up my guitar, but Barrie's inspired me to start playing again. Not only because of his ability but also because of his absolute commitment to playing which is almost palpable. His knowledge of guitar music is encyclopedic."
Little wonder then that when Morrissey's usual guitarist Alain Whyte was taken ill Mozzer recruited Barrie's talents at the twelfth hour for his Summer 2004 tour.
Fashioned from the heart of rock'n'roll, funk and the blues "We Are Little Barrie" finds the band drawing deep into themselves to capture an authenticity that is absent in most contemporary bands. And as a result they've discovered a rich vein of emotional and passionate booty.
"We're not worried about being the latest thing. We're just about having the fire and the passion. Follow your own thing and eventually people will come round - that's what we believe," explains Barrie.
At a last, a band to believe in.
LINE UP
Barrie Cadogan>vocals/guitar
Lewis Wharton>bass
Billy Skinner>drums
Russell Simins>drums
DISCOGRAPHY
SHRUG OFF LOVE (Stark>2000)
Shrug Off Love
Reply Me
DON'T CALL IT THE TRUTH (Stark>2001)
Don't Call It The Truth
Give Me A Microphone
MEMORIES WELL (Stark>2001)
Memories Well
Didn't Really Mean A Thing
BURNED OUT (Show 1>2002)
Burned Out
Buy My Style
LITTLE BARRIE EP (Gen>2004)
Burned Out
Be The One
Thinking On The Mind
Mud Sticks (cd Only)
Thinking On The Mind (aspects Remix)
FREE SALUTE (Gen>2005)
Free Salute
Didn't Mean A Thing (Vinyl Only)
Buy My Style(CD Only)
Stones Throw Instrumental (CD Only)
WE ARE LITTLE BARRIE (Gen>2005)
Free Salute
Burned Out
Greener Pastures
Be The One
Please Tell Me
Well And Truly Done
Stone Reprise
Stones Throw
Long Hair
Thinking On The Mind
Move On So Easy
Living In And Out Of Place
Freeprise
LONG HAIR (Gen>2005)
Long Hair (Radio Version)
Long Hair (Stereo MC's 7" Edit) (CD Only)
Long Hair (Extended Version) (Vinyl Only)
Once Upon A Lie (Demo)
GREENER PASTURES (Gen>2005)
Greener Pastures (Radio Edit)
Burned Out (DJ Nu-Mark Remix)
Greener Pastures (Live At The Ab Club, Belgium) (CD Only)
PIN THAT BADGE EP (GENUINE RECORDS EP)
Pin That Badge
Green Eyed Fool
LOVE YOU (Genuine Records>2006)
Love You
If I Don't Have To Answer
I Wonder Whether (Demo)
LINKS
Little Barrie>www.littlebarrie.com
FURTHER LISTENING
Paul Weller
The Small Faces
The Who
Review date: January 2007 |
