The name is deceptive, suggesting some ghastly conflation of incompatible ethnic musics in the vein of Afro Celt Soundsystem, hybridised in the hellish conviviality of the global village and sanctioned by Peter Gabriel. By rights, Bedouin Soundclash should be an ethno-fusion spoof dreamed up by Chris Morris. As it is, they are a Canadian pop-ska three-piece, which perhaps makes them odd enough anyway.
They make an eminently listenable noise, but that's largely because it's a pleasure to hear the sparseness a three-piece can afford, augmented by the dubby spaciousness generated by a supremely able drummer and bassist - Pat Pengelly and Eon Sinclair, respectively. These two make a fantastic rhythm section: drums a frenzy of staccato rimshots or reverberating in splashy echo, basslines exquisitely nimble and economical.
It's a shame, then, that Jay Malinowski, the singer and guitarist, can't wring more than a monotone scratchiness from his instrument. He sings in an adenoidal squawk, all glottal stops and nasal timbre, sandblasting the consonants from his lyrics. Melodies rarely distinguish themselves; Walls Fall Down is particularly bad, a bizarre welding of pallid skank to a monumentally sappy tune that would probably feel bullied if it had appeared on the soundtrack to Dawson's Creek. There are cheap, if brief, segues into Eddy Grant's Electric Avenue and Dawn Penn's You Don't Love Me (No, No, No) - at which points you think, aha! That's what a song is.
Being Canadian, they get to do some "Hey guys, we're not Americans, you know" pseudo-politicising - but not too much because they're "not one of those hippy bands who do a diatribe before each song". If inarticulate, they are certainly sincere, professing a love for the Clash and the Specials, as well as jungle, a genre that has returned underground over here, but to which the slower metabolism and geographical spread of the US music scene have given a much longer life.
Unfortunately, sincerity gets Bedouin Soundclash no further than the foothills of their heroes' achievements.
· At the Barfly, Liverpool, tonight. Box office: 0870 907 0999. Then touring.
