If I were an avid BBC Radio 2 listener, I would certainly have come across the name Gynneth Herbert before. As it is, this is my first encounter.
My impression is that she is the kind of light entertainer who is tailor made for this station but, at the same time, this record shows that she is not an artist who should be so easily pigeonholed; she clearly has no desire to be neatly slotted into jazz, pop or blues genres.
Clangers And Mash, her fifth release, lasts just over thirty minutes so is not really an album at all, especially since it contains only one new song.
This song, Perfect Fit, was apparently written on a sunny day in just two hours while sitting in Victoria Park, Hackney. It's a cutesy upbeat tune which comes complete with a suitably 'hello birds, hello sky' video.
In its banality and transparent playfulness, it is almost a parody of commercial pop. In defence of this simplicity, she says that the reason it has only four chords is because "I'd just learnt the ukulele and that's all I could play at the time".
There are three different treatments of Perfect Fit to choose from. Aside from the radio friendly edit featured in the video, there is a paired down version with just the aforementioned ukulele plus handclaps, The third contains Bowie-esque vocals by Mr Solo.
Of the other six tracks, four are remixes from her previous album All The Ghosts and one, Petite Cacahuete, a whimsical French tune written for her sister ("my Little Peanut"), was recorded at the same time but didn't make the final cut.
The final song is a bluesy a cappella take on Midnight Oil from her album Between me And The Wardrobe.
The 'mashes' of the title refers to these remixes which came about because she wanted "to present some Herbert tracks as they'd never been heard before".
The most radical of these is Girl After Shower's total revamp of My Narrow Man which cuts out all the lyrics apart from the three words of the title.
Another, So Worn Out, is redefined as disco floor filler by Temper D.
The remix of My Mini and Me is another product of her work with drummer and producer Seb Rochford; the brains (and hair!) behind Polar Bear, Acoustic Ladyland and many other projects.
With friends like these, the temptation to dismiss Herbert as just another quirky female pop artist should be resisted.
These tracks are bright, breezy and deliberately lightweight. She describes them accurately as "bleepy, tappy, pleasureful ear food to tickle your bellies".
This may not be a full meal but it is a nice taster from a versatile talent who is not afraid to extend her palate and keep listeners guessing.
