Chumbawamba - Abcdefg

Seven letters to hint at what Chumbawamba have spent their adult lives doing: fashioning something weird, funny, eccentric and challenging from a seven-note Do-re-mi of possibilities. Or by another name, music. 'ABCDEFG' is musically eclectic and wide-ranging, from acapella to pop to folk to jazz, a mix-up of ideas to reflect its subject matter. That subject matter includes a gentle hymn to teenage under-the-pillow discovery of music heard on late-night transistor radio; a celebration of the marching songs written by soldiers in the First World War; the story of how people had to battle against State Communist ideology to play their music; a poke at the folk world�s obsession with collection and authenticity; the story of the concentration camp survivor who disrupted the first playing of Wagner in Israel by swinging a football rattle. There�s a lot of stuff on this album � both literate (Chumbawamba love to use music to talk about history, politics and philosophy) and funny (Chumbawamba would be the first people to poke holes in the seriousness of this history, politics and philosophy). The stuff on this album is played on a battery of instruments (by the band) and augmented superbly by contributions on various songs from: Chopper of Oysterband on cello, Jon Boden of Bellowhead on fiddle, Belinda O�Hooley (ex-Unthanks) on pianoTracks; Introduction / Voices, That�s All / Pickle / Wagner At The Opera / Underground / Torturing James Hetfield / The Devil�s Interval / Hammer, Stirrup & Anvil / Puccini Said / That Same So-So Tune / Singing Out The Days / You Don�t Exist / The Song Collector / Missed / Ratatatay / New York Song / Dance, Idiot, Dance Tour dates attachedAlso available NMCD23 'A SINGSONG AND A SCRAP' NMCD26 'GET ON WITH IT' NMCD28 'THE BOY BANDS HAVE WON'