THE LAND OF THE GIANT DWARFS

If the question is "Which Avant band had the best run during the nineties?" X-LEGGED SALLY is no doubt in that conversation. From Belgium they released five studio albums plus a live one during that decade, and all are high end recordings. I regret not grabbing them all back in the day, but managed to pick this one up from 1996, and the previous one "Eggs And Ashes" from 1994. A rather large band of seven with three horn players including leader and main composer Peter Vermeersch. I prefer "Eggs And Ashes" to this one, but it's a matter of taste.

They've gone further down that "explicit lyrics" road here, but this band has always been about humour, and Zappa is their influence both instrumentally and lyrically. Although I did think of those crazy Swedes SAMLA MAMMAS MANNA with the blasting horns and high energy sounds. They actually expanded to an eight piece here, adding a vocalist who would be on "Fired" their live album released the same year as this one, but he won't be on their final 1997 recording. Interesting though that they added a string quartet for that final one.

A lot of short tracks here with 18 of them over 58 plus minutes. We have some guest chapman stick on the song "Hair". And that is actually my favourite song on here for that funny intro and those vocals that are full of character. I also really like "Fes II" for those deep rhythmic sounds, and it's quite powerful. Least favourite is "Skip XXI" and I have skipped this one. The conversation is not my thing on this one. Reminds me of Canadian Sue Johanson, an older lady who was a sex educator up here and on the radio. One of the many somewhat famous people I met when I owned my own business. Funny lady. Just not my kind of humour.

Avant fans need to hear this band, and the cool thing is that you can't go wrong with any of their six recordings. A solid 4 stars.