Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

July can be seen as month in which experimentation with the senses goes into a kind of overdrive, the pleasure of the discovery of something new going hand in hand with the sultry and aurally naked. The velvet touch offered by a craving to take the heat higher than should be allowed but in which the temptation catches fire and stokes the engine to the point where whistles blow and steam gushes out at such a rate that the explosion of sound spreads out across the room with rapid expansion and the wake of The Dirty Bomb leaving a collection of smiling faces.

The heady mixture of Funk and Jazz, of the film score loitering with devilish intent in the background and a sound that at times comes across as not just experimental but joyous. The combination of wondering just how the sound of Mark King, Peter Frampton and the solace of Progressive Jazz stalwarts Brand X would sound if you wandered into Studio 2 on Parr Street on a Sunday evening in July, some moments of experiment are just too cool to be ignored.

The set, whilst combined fully of covers, was interesting, dramatic and full of the tense anticipation of just where the music was going to go next. It is the act of such timing that comes across, especially when it a selection of tracks that many in the venue would not have come across for quite some time.

For Bri Stevenson on guitar, Ron Blundell on bass and Ian Hampson on drums, the key changes, that sense of timing taken to the limit and the affluence of sound made the first part of Strings and Things July mission stand out and give anybody outside the building who happened to catch the music, the thought of missing out, that their lives, so busy, so wrapped up in the arms of a movement not of their making, seethe with jealousy at the fun going on inside.

With songs such Kissing My Love, Pony Tail, a fabulous version of Jimmy Smith’s 8 Count for Rita, Headset Jazz and the excellent Bob Marley track No More Trouble being played, the pleasure of being in the company of The Dirty Bomb was heightened, explosive and beautifully exhausting. Some bands, some musicians just know instinctively how far to take the heart of the listener, The Dirty Bomb are one such band.

Ian D. Hall