Dave Simpson 

Little Barrie, We Are Little Barrie

(PIAS)
  
  

Little Barrie

With so many bands mining the punk-funk and emotional angst of 1979, Nottingham trio Little Barrie have cast their retro net much further. Their debut is painstakingly rooted in the mid-to-late 1960s, when newsreaders talked of "counterculture" and people of stiff-upper-lipped background occasionally dropped the term "daddio".

Funky opener Free Salute sets the tone: when Little Barrie urge the listener to "take a trip", they are not referring to the newsagents. The rest of the album is a similar stew of old jazz, soul and rock riffs and authenticity dips in and out of pastiche. An identical formula provided a big hit a few years back for Norman Cook's Freakpower, although whether Little Barrie can repeat the success of Tune In, Turn On, Freak Out may depend on public tolerance to singer/guitarist Barrie Cadogan's laboured stoner voice and bad 1960s puns such as Stone's Throw.

Alas, an hour of their teeth-gritted, big-collared exuberance is longer than most would want to spend in this particular past.

 

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