The Harlequin Dynamite Marching Band have pretty much got the punk-ish klezmer big band sound off to a tee. What little I know about the oeuvre is that it is best sampled live, so how does it translate to the audio format? Not too badly, I would wager.
It has been pretty well produced but I would say it is a bit heavy on the drums and the megaphone radio style vocals are slightly over done. Other than that it swings and staggers in all the right places, driven along by the Dixie band horns and a driving rhythm section. The lyrics speak of wanting someone to be lonely with and the melody puts me in mind of Putting On The Ritz which I think is a good thing?! Having listened to it a good few times now I am not sure the pizzazz of a live performance has been carried off and unfortunately the live b side suffers from inaudible vocals. At least it’s genuine in that respect.
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A bit of a mixed bag then but I would reserve judgement until I had seen them live in a drunken stupor. Me that is.
Harlequin Dynamite Marching Band at Soundcloud
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