debbie legge

Debbie Leggo ’car crash crowd’ (fire). We can’t apologise enough for initially overlooking this – truth is it got lost in the great CD mountain and though its been out for a month now that is no great reason to turn your nose up at it. Indeed we suspect the partaking of a diet of funny fags have been the recreational motivator behind this tripping far out and spacey gem. Pressed up on 10 inches of wax with the promise that two more such sets will follow before the year is out, Debbie Leggo are a South London based quartet of space cadets who describe their influences as being ’cider, dope and wine’ which sounds just about right considering they have crafted a stunningly sprawling prog jazz odyssey on the opening salvo of their debut release for Fire. ’car crash crowd’ featuring the guest vocals of Scot poet Gerry Mitchell (who it has to be said does some neat Mark E Smith styled intones) is a mind expanding chill inducing flashback to the early 70’s, gorgeously disturbed it meanders marvellously to the point that at times you feel they’ve disconnected from reality and somehow just lost the plot and gone off on some cosmic styled inner mind voyage only to occasionally touch base and bring it back together before bungee jumping again into the void. Plenty of noodling free form jam moments and beard stroking loveliness which should appeal to fans of the Living Brain, Zukanican, Hillage, Floyd and Scatter though one suspects the enjoyment would be maximised by a fair few tokes of a spliff. And while ‘car crash crowd’ is indeed psyche fried and tasty in our humble opinion the real gem in waiting lies over on the flip. A truly inspired mind altering experience and frankly the nearest thing you can probably get to recreating an acid experience without actually resorting dropping anything. Wired mayhem awaits on ’tripping with my pals from Partick / you doo wrong’ from moments of fried jazz eruptions to mellowing psyche erasing lounge routines blended with passages of space dub, this 12 minute third eye voyage is a stunning, scary and seismically stewed slice of sonic multi layering that evokes the spirit of Sun Ra flashing as it does deliciously through a genre cross pollinating tapestry of long forgotten myriads of sounds one time in vogue with labels such as Vertigo, Deram and Dandelion that combine to drag the listener through a revolving door of moods (psychosis, happiness etc….), textures and extremes to the point that your left decidedly dizzy by the experience mostly worrying whether your ever gonna make it back to terra firma. Stunning stuff and by our reckoning absolutely essential. http://www.firerecords.com

september 2008