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Angel Brother's latest album has received an excellent review in the May/June Properganda Magazine

Properganda May/June

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Dave and Keith Angel have over the past few years established themselves as one of the most innovative acts on the world music/roots circuit, now consolidating that hardwon reputation with an unpretentiously eponymous new CD that was directly inspired by the recent death of their father Ivor, a real lover of life and a constant source of encouragement.

The brothers’ unique sound marries their love of composers Lalo Schifrin, Ennio Morricone and David Axelrod with Latin, Indian and African percussion, acoustic and electric guitars, Hammond organ, piano and English folk fiddle: quite a mix!

Fittingly, they themselves describe their latest aural feast as “a soundtrack to a film of your imagination”, and certainly its cinematic propensities, inclinations and ambience are both immediately apparent and expressively ear-catching.

The brothers’ now-trademark adventurous globally-influenced crossover-roots grooves are also much in evidence, but the difference this time is an increased prominence given to soulful vocal-based textures on much of the material, these involving either Bombay-born female vocalist Sandhya Sanjana or the brothers’ long-time associate Mick Humphrey. These contributions add a constantly delightful new dimension to the brothers’ good-naturedly cosmopolitan musical adventures, whether on the chillout cine-pop of Ghosts, the easy-lounge vibe of Shifting Sands or the more overt exoticism of Django’s Caravan.

Dave and Keith augment their own consummate instrumental and arranging skills, guitars and percussion with funky and intelligent bass lines from Jim Lockey and Andy Seward and a return cameo from celebrated Magazine keyboardist Dave Formula. The brothers also call on English fiddlers Becki Driscoll and Nick Wyke, who turn in some fine solo passagework on the thigh-slapping Butlin’s Lederhosen Fancy and the genially folky-funk Empty Chair as well as being responsible for some commanding string arrangements, notably on the opener Tongues Of Fire (which shape-shifts most persuasively over the course of its seven-minute span from a gentle Latin lilt into a deliciously syncopated, relaxed reggae reel) and the more animated Goldbricking.

Every track brings fresh surprises to captivate the ear: perhaps most intriguing of all is the slinky Stepping On Shadows, where a compulsive fandango meets
twang guitar with Eastern promise, while the spirit of Classical Gas meets 70s film scores on Same Sky, Different Planet. The whole record should be listened to on good-quality headphones in order to experience the full multiplex sonic effect, for it glistens with accomplishment and captivates with its appealing and thoroughly natural eclecticism.

David Kidman