BILLIE BOTTLE

The live version is played out like your listening to the studio album from track one to twelve and in the same order. I like the picture near the back of the liner notes of this live event. A small setting with these five ladies doing their thing. It was performed at Wiltshire Music Centre on April 28, 2023. And while they follow the album track by track this is 13 minutes longer as we get some banter and intros along with some extended bits.

I still feel the studio album "Temple Of Shibboleth" is the best of the three I own but this one helped unlock it so this is special and different. I like some aspects of it more but miss the distorted organ not that there was a lot of that anyways. Again such a talented band in so many ways. Bassoon is all over this.

Billie Bottle's debut from 2010 included guest appearances from David Sinclair and Jimmy Hasting while here we get Richard Sinclair playing bass on one track. They are an all female five piece this time around. Billie, Viv and Roz are back but we get a new drummer and a bassoon player. What? On a Canterbury album? Yes this album unlike the previous one has that Canterbury sound with distorted organ and keys at times. Billie's vocals seem even better here. Again sophisticated jazzy pop tunes for the most part but man she can develope a song which I noticed on her last album as well. Intelligent music folks in spades both the lyrics and music. Mellotron too!

So I have a top five which includes the opener "In The Temple" opening with flute before vocals and piano take over. Beautiful music really as the tempo picks up with beats and more. Harmonies too and it turns experimental late. "Cantus" is the next song on the album and also a top five. This song sort of encapsulates the whole album especially the lyrics. I like when things open up after 2 minutes as well as the sax and bassoon during that late instrumental section, and how uplifting it is 5 minutes in with the mellotron. "Ironing Days" has Richard Sinclair on it but man Billie sounds amazing vocally on here. Light and jazzy with harmonies early as bass, beats and atmosphere join in. Canterbury organ on this one and I like the sax late followed by atmosphere.

"The Mead" is another top five, just a gorgeous sound to it to start.There's even a seductive "I'm a little teapot" section. Oh check out the bassoon 3 minutes in. Lastly "The Wolf" a song about baking and stuff and yes I'm a baker so I can relate a little. And that distorted organ to start! We got trumpets, bassoon, flute and even an experimental section. I'm not sure how "The Mending" didn't make my top five but it needs a mention for being the longest at almost 10 minutes and some really good arrangements here. So intense before 3 minutes as mending can be. I also have to mention "The Wash" for making doing the laundry sound almost adult rated.

Holding it at 4 stars for now but this really impressed me. Under an hour too. About a dozen guests helping out on this one.

This info was in the liner notes that are very thick, the whole package is so well done. So after the show they proceeded to travel and sing this song "The Power" and then ask the people questions about who and what is the power. So each of the 17 tracks here has a date, time and location at the end of the lyrics. This is a British political album and it's very vocal heavy. I would put this under Crossover as I don't hear Canterbury at all despite Billie being a Canterbury fan.

She did a tribute song on what would have been Phil Miller's 70th birthday and of the very long list of thankyous she mentions The Canterbury Sound along with surprisingly Markus Reuter, maybe not the same guy. This is sophisticated pop with a jazz flavour as we get plenty of sax and really it's the sax that impresses me the most about this album and that would be Roz Harding. MAGIC BUS' Viv Goodwin-Darke adds flute, Matrtine who I have mentioned adds violin and Lee Fletcher adds his talent in the studio plus he is a multi-instrumentalist. Billie is mostly singing and playing keys or acoustic guitar.

I think it's pretty cool that Billie's Mom was a big Kevin Ayers fan along with ELP. Billie mentions Richard Sinclair as her favourite bass player and being a fan of the band SCHNAUSER. So yeah we keep getting this Canterbury/Crossover connection with her music but honestly the Canterbury isn't in distorted organ or those familiar sounds but with whimsical vocals and silly but intelligent lyrics that Robert Wyatt apparently loves.

This is a long one at over 76 minutes and all about British politics. So not my thing and neither are vocal heavy albums which is why the 3 stars. It's like listening to a concept album and while this could be described as brilliant, listening to this over the past week was a chore. Again not my music but I know people who love this charming release.

1. "In the Temple" (4:42) opens rather straightforward piano-support but then turns electro pop with drum and percussion machine giving Billie's voice and music a very ROSIE VELA-like sound and feel. (8.75/10)

2. "Cantus" (5:35) though the music here is quite pleasant, the lead vocal and its lyric feel a little too adult contemporary or even religious oriented. It reminds me of Heather Findlay's 2016 breakout MANTRA VEGA album, The Illusion's Reckoning. (8.75/10)

3. "The Wash" (5:06) a song containing and expressing far more Canterbury quirk, humor, and musical sound and inclinations than any of the preceding songs--reminding me of Kavus Torabi's work. Now this is more of what I was hoping for. I love the "Northettes"-like b vox and crumhorns. (8.875/10)

4. "Ironing Days" (5:19) an absolutely beautiful female vocalist (Perhaps Viv Goodwin-Darke?) steps into the lead over this EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL-like jazz-pop song. Everything about this gently flowing song washes over me, into me, feeds me and melts my soul into a state of blissful detachment. (9.75/10)

5. "The Melting" (0:31) piano, cymbals, horns and reeds, and toms basically warming up and/or detuning with one another.

6. "The Mending" (9:43) a brilliant suite of light, melodic jazzy themes. I love the soundscape, the aid-back yet technical proficiency of all of the instruments as well as the lead female vocals. (18.75/20)

7. "The Brewing" (1:44) a heady, breathy sax warm up for the next song.

8. "The Mead" (5:48) more highly melodic spacious music uniquely blending multiple musical styles. Such great music-- stuff that could've very well come from the likes of GILLI SMYTH, ANNETTE PEACOCK, HANNAH MOULE, or JULIA HOLTER. (9.5/10)

9. "Black Swan" (5:16) a disco beat! A song that sounds a bit like something from STEELY DAN's Gaucho or ROSIE VELA's Zazu (both produced by Gary Katz)--though there are also TREVOR HORN and even SWING OUT SISTER elements as well. Quite melodic and earwormy despite also being quirky. (9.25/10)

10. "The Harvest" (0:35) all-female choral arrangement with piano accompaniment. (4.5/5)

11. "The Wolf" (6:58) full-on Canterbury both in instrumental sound choices as well as melody lines and odd, shifting time signatures used. Really clever, fun lyrics as well. I love how the mood can remain light and even humorous even in the eerie section of little-girl-backwards-speak and crazed, dissonance. (13.5/15)

12. "The Rest" (7:28) this pretty straightforward lounge jazz song in which Billie returns to the odd "shibboleth" theme is my least favorite song on the album. (12.5/15)

Were it not for the rather inchoate "shibboleth" theme that Billie latched onto and expresses outwardly in the opening and closing songs, this would be a glowing collection of jazz-pop sometimes-Canterbury infused songs that I'd shout out as a masterpiece

A-/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of creative, fun progressive rock music coming from a worshipper of Canterbury Style music and musicians.