Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It’s been a while since the image of Peter Gunn walked the veiled streets and alleyways of our psyche, the guitar playing as if forced by a thunderstorm and being plucked by the consciousness of the seismic stranger of the instrumental, the one who looks as if they have walked straight off a neo noir and in the arms of Cuban dance routine; such is the presence of musically delivered character in instrument form, that when it comes your way, the only suitable response is to lay down your time for a couple of hours and while away the pleasure from the company created.

There will be those who look upon the instrumental as a segue, a move without a definition, just a pattern of responses that owe perhaps more to the spirit of Jazz than to the extroverted beauty that is not encumbered by the ego of the lyrical chase; and like a poet who visualises the sonnet without having to consider the music that might accompany it, for Mike Brookfield and his brand new album, Hey Kiddo!, the same is absolutely true, that there is nothing but the beauty and the craving of the sound to guide him on.

For the Liverpool born and Dublin based musician Mike Brookfield, Hey Kiddo! is the sound of uniqueness forged from the fires of those great guitar instrumentals of the past, their ashes, long since discarded maybe by a modern generation who have been matured in a different arena, will see just how hot the furnace is when placed in the hands of master guitar-smith and entertainer, and the molten core at the heart of this new experience is hotter than the sun blazing away over both Liverpool Bay and the River Liffey on a sultry August day.

Across tracks such as Wave Shaped Moon, the superb Aqua Cat, Bikini Robots, Lighnin’ Tube Snake, the excellent King Strut, Diamond Beach, and the album’s title track, Hey Kiddo!, what strikes the listener most is the enormous sense of fun that is being had by Mr. Brookfield and those who have accompanied him on this intricate, and yet fulfilling journey, of open-minded expression.

Fun, if an album doesn’t contain some sense of joy within its confines, then it really isn’t doing its job, Hey Kiddo! though embraces the sentiment and the emotion in its rawest and most passionate consideration of the genre, it is uncompromising, appealing, and inclusive, and no matter the way you think of the instrumental album, in this new recording, Mike Brookfield more than tempts the listener away from the stagnation of rhetoric and installs instead a response of involvement, of magnificence.

Shrewd, encompassing, striking, a massive shout out to Hey Kiddo! and the richness it offers.

Ian D. Hall