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home » festivals » Endorse-It In-Dorset » Endorse-it Indoors 2007
Endorse-it Indoors 2007 reviewWednesday 11th April 2007 Temperatures soared as we drove into Somerset and the quiet town of Frome. Easter Sunday at The Cheese and Grain is becoming a regular event for us and we arrive outside the large venue before the first act take to the stage to start Endorse-It Indoors proper. Once wristbanded up, and inside we see the stage is in the same place as before, but with the heat attracting many to sit outside in the Easter sunshine the catering has been sensibly moved outside. So we can grab a bite to eat and enjoy the weather. It doesn’t take long to siddle up to the bar selling Milk Street Brewery's own wonderfully named '! Beer' or 'ElderFizz' is offered on tap as well as cider, lager, spirits, soft drinks and munchies. Stalls are fewer than last year, my wallet's happy but my daughter is less so and there's no merchandise stall this year, no chance to purchase more Endorse-It CDs for the car! While the weather keeps many of us outside between acts, especially me on the hunt for tobacco around Frome after 4pm on Easter Sunday means I get to visit all the surrounding pubs. The hot weather is clearly keeping numbers down and the price isn't due to drop for entry until sunset, so the cool barn like interior of the building feels a bit empty. Kicking off proceedings is The Tarka Groove Experiment who take us on a bit of a musical odyssey. All cornerstoned with something resembling old Americana folk blues, their songs are well crafted and they're actually rather good. Two guitars and keyboards radiate a fusion of a bit of world, a load of funk and a big laid back sound. At times they throw in a fiddle and at another a slide guitar and this is perfect Sunday music to groove to.  Layered over this hard to define core flavour of Americana Country it's all rather varied, soulful, warm and inviting and when unleashed the sound is even touching on full on 70s rock and roll. Pity there weren't more people there to see them. Lazy Habits are the future. The more I see hip hop artists delving into using musicians to back them rather than a DJ and decks the more I think the more 'Live' feel of this presentation is a winner. With a brass section, bass player, drummer and decks providing the samples, the two rappers flow over repeated ‘loops’ of live performance. The overall sound they achieve is awesome! This is the future of hip hop as it stomps all over MC/Decks pairings providing a more versatile sound.  They do it really well too, the main MC Lazy and the BeatBoxer drop some amazing beats and lyrical content. With fast flowing effect and then up comes the rhythm and the horns to give it some extra bounce. Old school musical hip hop given a new energy. The human beatbox shows his skills in a couple of heavy duty solos, so deep he must smoke a 100 a day! Then back to more tight funky instrumentation with lyrics whipped out over the top. They showcase some of their new stuff and ‘Memory Back’ is the highlight of their set. Inner-city tales to a killer beat, next time someone mentions hip hop drop this lots name as a must see. Los Albertos look like a classic collective drawn together for one thing to provide us with music to dance to. Considering there’s so many of them, including two sax players (tenor and alto) you’d expect them to make a racket. But nope this is a well harmonious wall of ska soaked dancing beats. The vocal harmonies from the only girl on sax over the other harmonies of all the blokes in the band really make the sound rather full and infectious.  They might look a bit rag tag, but it’s clearly a guise as this lot are tight with instrument changes, crazy antics and some humorous lyrics. The humour puts you off guard and ‘waaahey’ before you know it your dancing and smiling. The band continues to joke around rolling on the floor and having ‘bundles’, water fights and it’s all highly entertaining, highly musical and highly enjoyable. Just a shame the place wasn’t packed to the rafters for them, as Los Albertos were terrific. If you get the chance go see them, but be ready to dance about!
review by Scott Williams photos by Karen Williams
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