Five Furious Fish are a five-piece English electric folk band, playing a unique and engaging blend of Cajun, zydeco, reggae and rhythm & blues. On this, their debut CD, they play mostly originals, penned by two band members, plus a couple of choice covers.
The band’s fusion of styles is at its most eclectic on “Cold Heart,” one of two written by founding member Robert Darnell, who sings and plays multiple instruments. It opens with a funky reggae twin-guitar attack with synthesized sounds of barking dogs interspersed. After a long lead-in, it enters a Cajun-style vocal section, then shifts back to reggae for the close.
Darnell shares songwriting and lead vocal duties with Charlie Stubbings, a recent addition to the 10-year-old ensemble. Stubbings wrote and sings the two opening tracks, including the anthemic “Rise Up,” which combines a Celtic jig on accordion and fiddle with a ska-funk brew. Darnell’s accordion playing is particularly strong on the second track, “She’s an Alien,” an energetic and electric cajun two-step, with an Oyster Band-style middle-eight that has Middle Eastern influences. And the Fish really rock out on the cajun rave-up “Me and My Cousin.”
Throughout, the Fish sound quite a bit like the Oyster Band, if the Oysters suddenly decided to do cajun reggae. Lyrically, the songs are not particularly sophisticated, but this is primarily a dance band, and as such is appropriately engaging and full of energy. Guest fiddler Karl Arnold plays a lovely line in the acoustic folk number “Never Say Never,” and Jethro Tull guitarist Martin Barre throws in some hot licks on the band’s cover of Thomas Dolby’s “Cajun Moon.” Simeon Evans’ fiddling and Darnell’s accordion playing are particular strong points. Word on the band’s website is that Evans has been replaced at least for now by Simon Swarbrick, nephew of Fairport Convention’s Dave Swarbrick.
Hook, Line & Sphincter is pretty good for a self-produced and distributed CD. The design and typography are basic and functional. The production and engineering, by the band and Mark Tucker, is generally good, although the bass is too heavy for my taste on some of the funkier numbers.
(self-released, 2001)
