LED BIB
Mark Holub • Liran Donin • Toby McLaren • Pete Grogan • Chris Williams
	BRING YOUR OWN RUNE 314	"Jazz and punk rock got in a fight, made up, got married and had an offspring named Led Bib. [Led Bib] dont make jazz, they don't make rock and they don't make fusion. This hunk of amalgamate called Bring Your Own–with its bits of jazz, rock, fusion, funk, punk and metal–is everything at once.... Bring Your Own contains not an iota of swing, but it retains the essence of jazz: It is largely improvised and it invigorates the soul." – JazzTimes "This is the sound of a band having fun… like a hot chainsaw through butter." – The Wire "One of the UK’s most adventurous groups" – Jazzwise "You’ll be hard pressed to keep the lid on this explosive tour de force of ensemble intelligence" – The Independent "Rarely have two saxes, keyboard, bass and drums sounded so dangerous yet so compelling" – Observer Music Monthly  "It’s exuberant, intense, varied and exciting." – BBC Music Magazine " …a masterpiece of musical foreboding" – The Metro "...like a gale of fresh air" ­– The Guardian A tremendously popular act at home in the UK, their last album, Sensible Shoes (their first with Cuneiform) was a 2009 'Album of the Year' winner with the prestigious Mercury Prize. They regularly play large-scale festivals and concert halls in the UK as well as festivals and shows elsewhere in Europe. So, in the wake of the huge press attention lavished on them due to the Mercury, and having appeared on UK's Channel 4 News, performing their version of the theme music to literally millions in front of the telly, did the mighty Bib decide to  tone it down? Turn it back a notch? Definitely not. If anything, Bring Your Own contains some of their hardest rocking material to date, mixing the full throated cry of the dual saxes over loudly amplified Fender Rhodes and heavy bass and drums. Those familiar with the Led Bib sound will recognize the trademark hooky melodies and idiosyncratic improvisation on this album. The raw energy and style remains, but it has never sounded so confident or accomplished, so genre-crossing and definition-defying. Here eastern melodies tumble into rock and roll grooves, there jazz phrases open up pastoral overtures, and elsewhere crescendos rise and disappear into whirring kraut-rock wormholes. The group has been playing together for over 7 years – and it shows. There’s an electricity here, a ‘group mind’ built out of a confidence in each of the member’s playing that means risks can be taken and their unique sound world cracked open and reassembled time and time again. The band has come a long way from their humble beginnings as Holub’s college music project! Led Bib were formed in 2003 and have had the same formation since their beginnings; Mark Holub, drums; Liran Donin, bass; Toby McLaren, Rhodes and Chris Williams and Pete Grogan, alto sax.
	SENSIBLE SHOES RUNE 283	Sensible Shoes is the fourth album by this London quartet of dual alto saxes, Fender Rhodes & keyboards, bass and drums. It is a cataclysmic offering of jazz-rock, free-jazz, avant-skronk, funk-rock, art-noise and whatever else they can lay their hands on. A tremendously popular act at home in the UK, where they regularly play large-scale festivals and concert halls (as well as playing the typical club gigs that all musicians play), Sensible Shoes is their first recording to be released outside of the UK. The band has impressed afficiandos of foward thinking electric jazz with their impressive and muscular dual sax-topped, Fender Rhodes-driven music. This new album is culmination of two years of heavy touring since the release of their last album and all of that work definitely shows! A band who have already done great things and are destined for more of the same, but with extra sauce, please. "We are a jazz band from London, we sound like (insert some ridiculous adjectives here). We have played with (insert long list of people who we have onced shared a toilet with). And we have played at (insert long list of places where we have once smuggled our instruments inside)." "We need bands like Led Bib to make the world safe for dangerous music." – Observer Music Monthly "Like crossing the road in a reverie and being run over by a passing bus - but in a pleasing way" – Evening Standard “…an electrified 21st century Fire Music.” – Jazzwise "The future of jazz or an infernal racket? This young London “post-jazz” outfit are a bit of both. Under the drummer Mark Holub, saxophones and a bumpy rhythm section manoeuvre from dishevelled waltzes to jazz-thrash, pausing occasionally to catch their breath. They’re clearly having a great time, and sometimes you will, too." – The Times "They represent a new generation of jazz musicians, blessed with the technical know-how of a music college degree and the sexiness of rock n' roll." – Blues and Soul "Gritty, raunchy jazz from a group who deserve to be checked out." – The Wire "...the effect is like one of those cartoon fights with arms and legs protruding from a raging dust cloud." – Irish Tribune