The London Snorkelling Team – Audio Recording And Map

This curious lot are a quartet who “play music they imagine may have happened some time in the 1950s, perhaps at a cocktail party for experimental scientists with a fascination for cartoons”. Apparently their live performances involve contributions from magicians, tap dancers and chemistry professors, and that sort of willful eccentricity certainly carries over into this album. Although it’s titled Audio Recording And Map, alas only the former is included with this digital edition (the physical release does indeed come with a map, cartography enthusiasts), but that should itself provide you with more than enough incentive to immerse yourselves in this bizarre band’s universe. Using Moog, farfisa and a parabolic reflector (among other things) The London Snorkelling Team inspire references to lounge-lizard jazz, vintage TV themes and all manner of quirky library LP sounds. Quite magnificently, on ‘The French Horse’ you even hear the regimented clippety-clop of coconut shells, while despite its title, ‘Norman Bates’ proves to be unremittingly wacky and lighthearted, spluttering about the place with knockabout analogue synths and trombones. More fun abounds on ‘I’m A Little Mouse’, which offers up some splenetic scat-infused jazz, and ‘The Creep’, as the band get all spooky and suspenseful in a lighthearted sort of way. Recommended.