Andy Edwards came to prominence when he was drummer for Robert Plant, while progheads will think of him as the man who replaced Cookie in IQ, as well as being in Frost, working with Clive Nolan and Magenta and these days he can be found working alongside Bev Bevan in Quill (which these days also features none other than Mr Bass himself, John Jowitt). Andy is also Head of Music at Kidderminster College, and has released more than 20 albums of different musical styles. What we have here is Kundabuffa, where Andy provides drums, keyboard and guitar and Theone Mae Dawes provides all the vocals. The line-up is completed by Paul Wetton (guitar) and Jack Humphries (bass) with a couple of special guests.

I must admit that if I hadn’t been sent this then I wouldn’t have played it, as this music is so far away from what I normally listen to that it could be on a different planet. If I had played it just once, and not paid much attention, I would have said it was yet another album aimed for the dance scene with little in the way of redeeming factors. I know I wouldn’t actually have played it enough to be able to review it, as I would have quickly passed on by. But, Andy and I had swapped quite a few emails, and so I was determined not to let personal bias get in the way of listening properly. It took a while, but I realised that although this is on the face of it an album which is indeed designed for the dance scene, it is way more than that. For a starter, we have a real drummer behind the kit who is used to playing in weird and unusual time signatures, and providing dramatic impact, so why stop now? Then Theone Mae Dawes is a really good singer, who is more contralto than soprano, and will happily drop down the octave. She is also spinning and using her voice at times almost like a scat vocalist, so it is another instrument which is tied into the band with incredible drums and powerful bass. There are times when the studio is used to chop and mix it up, and yet at the heart of this there are real musicians mixing in so many forms and styles from jazz through to dance hitting one the likes of King Crimson on the way.

The keyboard playing tends to be basic, and there is little in the way of guitar, but when it comes in it can really make an impact. Just before the guitar break on “Don’t Know, Don’t Wanna Know” she says “What’s this bit?” with a lovely Brummy accent, and it makes me smile each time. This is experimental, danceable, and truly progressive music in that it is breaking boundaries between different scenes. When I first heard this I wondered what on earth I was going to say, while now I can honestly say I feel really pleased at having had the opportunity to hear it. This and all of Andy’s other projects and albums can be found at https://andyedwards.bandcamp.com/

Rating: 7/10

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/andy.edwards.drummer/