Little Barrie, a classic British power trio in the lineage of Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience are Barrie Cadogan (guitar/ vocals), Lewis Wharton (bass) and Virgil Howe (drums).
Fifth album Death Express packs a heavy punch, channelling the three members’ ferocious musical chops into a raw, DIY response to today’s atmosphere of confusion and division.
There’s no political message, just lyrical food for thought, and some of the tautest, most incendiary grooves you’ll ever hear. Highoctane meditations on surveillance paranoia (Copter), devious policing at mass protests (Molotov Cop) and greed (Vulture Swarm) have rarely felt so irresistible to body movement.
The album’s genesis started when they were invited to provide incidental music for ‘Better Call Saul’, a spin-off from TV phenomenon ‘Breaking Bad’, for which they’d already cut the theme tune. With no time to book a studio, they were forced to do it themselves, in their practice room. It was there that the sound of Death Express was born – and recorded, as they ended up spurning big, expensive studios, in favour of a couple of ancient MacBooks, and an old tape machine.
With Virgil’s propulsive breakbeats pushed to the max these tracks leap from the speakers as Little Barrie have never done before, expressing an urgency rare in a band approaching the end of their second decade together. But then, this is no everyday band…
They cut two albums, 2005’s blue-eyed soul/funk blueprint, ‘We Are Little Barrie’, and ’07’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ (produced by trip hop supremo Dan The Automator, and UK reggae-revive hero, Mike Pelanconi). Two further albums diversified into ’60s surf-pop (2010’s ‘King Of The Waves’) and darker soundtrack-y Krautrock (‘14’s ‘Shadow’), while along the way Barrie had developed a parallel career as a guitar-slinger for hire, sessioning for premier-leaguers like Morrissey and Spiritualized, and serving time in Primal Scream circa 2006-15. Little Barrie’s grief-free vibe has won them countless friends. And apart from ‘Better Call Saul’ their music has appeared on countless ads, TV shows and movies.
Death Express is a colossal outpouring. “We thought about cutting it down,” says Barrie, “trying to be neat and concise, but then we thought, ‘No, fuck it, it’s going out as it is! The title’s positive. Time’s short. None of us know how long we’ve got.” So, yes: the clock’s ticking. Seize the day. Time to jump aboard.
Tracklisting Death Express
- Rejection
- I.5.C.A.
- Copter
- Golden Age
- New Disease
- You Won t Stop Us
- Count To Ten
- Love or Love
- (Nothing Will) Eliminate
- The Dodge
- Bill$ House
- Molotov Cop
- Vulture Swarm
- Produkt
- Compressed Fun
- Ultra Violet Blues
- Sonic Lodge
- Death Express
- Shoulders Up, Eyes Down
- Mind Mountain
- BETTER CALL SAUL 2017 (MIX 2 EMI) MSTRD EM (22)