STROMBA - Tales From The Sitting Room

Stromba is essentially the artistic union of two British producers, Tom Tyler and James Dyer.

It all starts back in '98, as an amateur duo experimenting with the sampler, and in '99 the partnership yields its first fruit ("The Pinch Ep", Fat Cat). In the meantime several funk-jazz instrumentalists join in, while the duo dabbles in productions and remixes.

By around the middle of 2002 the collective's lineup takes stable shape: James McKechan (guitar and bass), James Nye (sax), Teowa Young (violin), Nicol Thompson (trombone), Duncan Mackay (trumpet, hammond organ), Max Brennan (drums, double bass, tabla) and Adrian Terry Meehan (drums, percussion).

The first compositions are also born; one of these, "Giddy Up", will end up on a 12" at the end of 2004.

Having prepared a taste of their instrumental mixture of avant-dub, tribal funk, electro-psychotic fusion and metaphysical dilations, our band puts out their debut full-length.

"Camel Spit", the ouverture of this, their first Lp, opens with a sax call evoking a sort of knowing Mahler, almost immediately surrounded by atonal instrumental frictions as if at a primordial awakening, before launching into a midtempo rumba counterpointed by the sinister accents of the hammond.

"Giddy Up" itself opens dazingly (with studio manipulations almost worthy of Disco Inferno), before launching into a funky-disco hyperballad, with tribal-leaning, Davis-esque overtones (somewhere around "Big Fun" via "On The Corner"), complete with unrestrained brass choruses.

The stretched-out interlude unleashes sounds both digital and archaic, both material and celestial, both tying back to the introduction and pushing toward effective contrasts of suspended timbres.

The dub component surfaces disruptively in tracks like "Swings And Roundabouts", where decorative percussion provides the backdrop for the trumpet's intervention, once again steering everything toward the territory of electric, post-Bitches Brew Miles Davis.

Or in "Septic Skank", where iridescent sounds set up a bassline in the style of early Massive Attack, and where a noir guitar produces estranging effects that would make King Tubby jealous.

"Tickle Me Dub", with its roots-flavor brass, is on the other hand more conventional.

There's no shortage of tracks where the two producers' skill at reshaping and reworking sound comes to the fore.

"Perculator" is a driving track, almost a slowed-down jive, where the sonic effects turn both abstract and rhythmic, while a lounge guitar keeps up the alchemy of blending bolero with kraut-rock.

"Blue Skin", one of the most successful tracks, pairs hallucinogenic effects with sustained, oscillating organ notes to conjure a broad spectrum of soundscapes (recalling contemporaries Nudge), while the guitar ratchets up the tension through atmospheric sound progressions.

"Invisible Stink" nods to the darker, almost industrial-dance side of Cinematic Orchestra, with new tribal percussion and a bass that speeds up the swampy pace of the little ensemble.

"Feed Her Procedure" is a stifling, pulsing dub track that vaguely recalls both the trip-cool of Tied & Tickled Trio and the dadaism of Head as well as the abstract funk of Liquid Liquid, built from guitar cells constantly broken down and reassembled.

"Jewell", the brief closing elegy, is once again disorienting, with McKechan's solo acoustic guitar surrounded by sound effects as if to conjure the ghosts of the past, declaring an incurable melancholy.

The setup would recall the closing of "School Of The Flower" ("Lisboa", see above), the contemporaneous Six Organs Of Admittance album, were it not for Young's violin weaving through the evanescent grain of this short piece.

A fine example of a collection of grooves that don't take themselves too seriously, with just the right dose of dancefloor emphasis.

It has an undeniable quality: shedding light on an aspect too often overlooked, wrongly so, namely the fine-tuning of sonic furnishings, the ever-shifting nature of acoustic scenery, managing to almost overturn the hierarchical balance of the arrangement.

Aside from a few too many gimmicks, the mixing work is remarkably refined, capable of avoiding the anonymity of aestheticizing background music.

The title says it all: the album was recorded in Tyler's living room.

Stromba is the name of one of the most powerful anabolic steroids on the market.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google

30/04/2026