Music Review: NeWt
The Jazz Bar, Edinburgh ****
In contrast, Lighthouse, from their Shetland inspired NeWt North project, was more pensive, with chiming bells and trombone murmurs, while Cydonia 19.5 was reminiscent of the kind of vivid soundscapes Stephen regularly composes to accompany creepy German Expressionist films, although with its wonderfully gurgly trombone voicings and guitar howls, there were times when you weren’t quite sure whether it was Count Orlok or Donald Duck who was creeping up on you, before the ’ bone’ bass shifted things into a bluesy groove.
Plenty of relentless propulsion, too, in Red Hill while their penultimate number, Rover, was more of a melancholy meander with drums cutting loose from the plodding tempo, before further fireworks with snarling guitar and wah-wah trombone brought things to a characteristically muscular close.
JIM GILCHRIST