DAAU – Tub Gurnard Goodness (Belgium 2004) [Avant-Prog] @VBR

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DAAU is an extraordinary Belgium band that is clearly not having the deserved attention in the Progressive World. In fact, this band belongs to a small fringe of current prog outfits that defy any sense of categorization by means of an extremely original yet difficult musicality.While I strangely connect their resulting sound with that of path builders Alamaailman Vasarat, still they use different instruments and also achieve different sonic landscapes. So maybe it is their attitude which makes me relate these two bands…Using accordion, violin, cello and clarinet, DAAU have been evolving their sound in a complex web of adrenaline folk attacks, mixed with calmer passages, but always with excellence in their capacity to interplay and create tight pieces of bizarre music. Their sound mostly absorbs world music leanings and folk tendencies, applying them dissonant RIO venues and occasional chamber textures. This results in a tremendously innovative setting that, nevertheless, will only be of emphasized interest to the real adventurous listeners that populate the progressive scene.With their fifth album, Tub Gurnard Goodness, DAAU again proves us that they are able to help in the definition of the word “challenging”.Their style only slightly changes from album to album, but the sound in Tub Gurnard Goodness continues to avoid repetition, for the band strives to find new ways to consume and display their ability to interpret modern prog and folk music in an unparallel result (at least in western bands). They also include the strangest reggae tracks I’ve ever heard, perhaps because they sound like ghostly appearances of unnatural elements in DAAU’s peculiar mindset. Completely out of everything, but highly amusing, to say the least.
I can only but highly recommend this band to those who like folk flavored music, played in the best eastern tradition (though this band is Belgium, sometimes they sound like directly out of an Emir Kusturika movie) but with abnormal frantic violin and cello, grooving accordion and thoughtful clarinet, all done with amazing precision and hard-to-find good taste. An absolute must!
-Nuno (Proggnosis)

01. My Goodness! Poetry
02. Off The Record
03. Is This It?
04. Raw Like Milk
05. The Guts
06. Of R*d*h*d (2+2=5)
07. A Funny Little Feeling
08. Catfish Blues
09. A Shortcut To The Edge
10. Even More Lost Souls
11. In My Midnight Skies
12. Two Fast Dreams

Simon Lenski: Violoncello
Buni Lenski: Violin
Han Stubbe: Clarinet
Roel Van Camp: Accordion