The Irrepressibles // From the Circus to the Sea

This CD is shabby looking to say the least and the cover design is at best amateurish, so just what The Irrepressibles going to sound like if they couldn’t even be bothered to present their disc nicely? Well before getting to that I had a quick squizz at the PR sheet and my interest was piqued. This mini-album is the accompaniment to a film called The Forgotten Circus by Shelly Love, and The Irrespressibles themselves are effectively one Jamie McDermott leading a 10 piece orchestra - potentially interesting stuff then. The album opens with the sound of a bow being drawn across the strings of a cello with too much force to get an interesting scratching sound before the rest of the orchestra comes in for a short, instrumental intro tune. I like. Track 2 starts with Mr McDermott’s vocals and I’m a little surprised; the most obvious comparison to draw is to that of Anthony from Anthony and the Johnsons. It’s got that same theatrical power to it and works really well. The rest of the album continues similarly, with sprinklings of the Baroque, Gershwin and Samba thrown in for good measure. I really like this album and hope it does well – I'd love to see the film it goes with too, to see how the thing holds together as a complete unit.