Hackney Colliery Band set out to update a grand tradition. They are London’s contemporary answer to the marching bands of New Orleans, the wedding bands of eastern Europe, and, of course, the brass bands of the British mining communities. They are a nine-piece, playing trumpets, trombones, saxophones and sousaphone, but to this they add percussion, including drum machines, and electronica. They have collaborated with singers, including Amy Winehouse, but this is an instrumental set in which they show off their range and expertise. The best self-composed tracks include trumpeter Steve Pretty’s Reawake, with its shift between a drifting, atmospheric opening, insistent rhythm patterns and grand finale, and Luke Christie’s jaunty It’s Normally Bigger. Then there are rock-influenced pieces, including a drifting treatment of Kurt Cobain’s Heart Shaped Box and a frantic and furious reworking of Three Trapped Tigers’ Cramm. Clever, and enormous fun.
