Words & live pics by Ed King
On Friday 20th July, The Taboo Club release their debut single ‘Strangers’ – a taste of what’s to come, with their next track, ‘Bible John’, already earmarked for release in autumn this year. But first things first.
‘Strangers’ will be available for free download through the standard online steaming sites from Friday 20th July, with some helpful signposts no doubt on the band’s social media. For more information direct from The Taboo Club just hop, skip and jump over to their Facebook page – click here.
The first track to come from this relatively new band (although each member has been playing in one guise or another for long enough for me to wince at the descriptive) ‘Strangers’ is as perfect an introduction to The Taboo Club as you could get.
Having recently seen them pop their live cherry at The Dark Horse – supporting those glorious astral adventurers, The Mothers Earth Experiment – The Taboo Club are hard a little to surmise. But it’s my job to try, and by doing so I will be making a paint by numbers review of ‘Strangers’ itself. Right then, where to begin…
There’s a sax, which is awesome, and keys, which are both wonderfully used (not over) by Ben Oerton. Although this invites the lazy journalist jazz references to come spilling out when I’m not watching the keyboard.
But this is not jazz, even if it reminds me of ‘bourbon lit Harlem dive bars’; the overall ‘tapestry of genres’ from The Taboo Club is very much driven by guitar – a duel attack from Jack Ingaglia (rhythm) and Josh Rochelle-Bates (bass), reminding this writer of the Velvet Underground if they happened across Maceo Parker one night and took a shit load of mushrooms. Then, lurking behind some omnipresent red velvet curtains, is a steady kick drum, heartbeat, and teasing rim tap from Aiden Price – all led by Rob Lilley’s deep, brooding, and yet curiously comforting vocals.
‘Strangers’ works with these jigsaw pieces, creating a surprisingly short layer cake of crescendos; I say surprisingly short as you could quite easily, and happily, see this ensemble rise and freefall for a good 15minutes before pausing for breath. And no doubt, in the aforementioned New Your suburb, someone under some other name is doing just that.
Produced with aplomb by Ryan Pinson, ‘Strangers’ is a touch of red velvet class to come out of the Birmingham music scene – a true musical fusion without the hubris or hangover of years at the Conservatoire. But to be fair, any of The Taboo Club could well be classically trained – they just haven’t felt the need to tell us about it during the first round of drinks. And the second.
But they did have a few words to throw on the table, in a bold declaration from the ‘Strangers’ press statement, that explains: ‘The Taboo Club are entirely of their own, comprising of and expressing the values of its individual members to create something heart-breakingly cathartic’. And I couldn’t have put it better myself.
The Taboo Club release ‘Strangers’ on Friday 20th July – available for free download through all the usual online steaming sites. For more on The Taboo Club, visit www.facebook.com/TheTabooClubUK
The Taboo Club Showcase Gig with Birmingham Review will be held at The Victoria on Saturday 29th September. To find out more, and to be on the waiting list for when tickets are released, visit the Facebook Event Page by clicking here.
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For more on The Mothers Earth Experiment, visit 
