Bongo Boy TV – Season 14 Episode 11 – Thanks To The Many (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

As we hurtle towards the holidays (where has the year gone?), we all look forward to a bit of a break, a chance to slow down, a time to take things easy. Well, not quite all of us. Bongo Boy, for example, shows no sign of slowing down, and their TV show, just one of their many musical outlets, is still firing on all cylinders and putting the competition to shame.

The Bongo Boy Rock n Roll TV Show has been a prime-time staple on national television for more than a decade, and it’s easy to see why. Each episode unleashes an avalanche of new music, leaping freely across genres, borders, and styles. It’s a broad-minded barrage of sound with only one guiding principle: quality. No trends to chase, no flavour-of-the-month gimmicks, no allegiance to whatever genre happens to be hogging the zeitgeist. If it’s excellent, it’s in — simple as that.

This episode kicks off with Gar Francis, a name often associated with a more foot-on-the-monitor, low-slung, rock-and-roll sound, but here offering something that fits better with the tag country-rock or Americana. “Hearts on Fire” (featuring Sapphire Star) blends country twang with blistering guitar breaks and a video that conjures images that are about as American as it gets, and I mean that in the best of ways.

We stay in a very homespun American sound with “Saviour,” which comes courtesy of Commander McLane Band ft. Christina Menn, a gentle ballad shot through with steel guitars and the rhythmic pulse of the acoustic bass, as compelling vocals ebb and flow. A real end-of-the-night, last slow dance vibe and a cool, calm, and considered song.

Monique Grimme has three songs featured here, each in collaboration with Sapphire Star Studios, and the first is “The Cure For Envy.” Bridging the sophisticated folk-rock of Fleetwood Mac and perhaps the balladic end of Haim, the result is a song that feels instantly familiar and yet wonderfully new. She also contributes “Poison Ivy,” taken from her recent album The Croft of Grimme’s Tales. This mid-paced, accessible groovesome piece spins metaphor and reality together through a lush soundscape.

We also find her closing the session with “Neon Pretense.” This time out, we find her in a  ’60s jangle-pop world, one of coiled riffs and contagious rhythms. But it is merely 60s-infused, rather than merely resting on past glories, as for every backward nod to what has gone before, there are two steps into a sonically splendid indie-pop future.

Arrayed between these, we find an eclectic and exciting range of music. AkayCentric‘s “Recess” is that reggaeton blend of cutting-edge dance and dancehall groove, Latin time signatures, and pop accessibility, and Inches From Sin gives us “We Need Love,” and ain’t that the truth. Feeling like a trap-beat-driven blend of forward-thinking dance, timeless gospel chants, and ’70s conscious soul sentiments, the spacious groove is perfect for allowing the message to sit front and centre, a message reminiscent of that running through Marvin Gaye’s breakthrough progressive soul album What’s Going On. And given that he was saying the same things more than 50 years ago, the main takeaway is that humanity never seems to learn anything. Ask not why Inches From Sin are going over the same lyrical ground, but why they feel compelled to retread it!

And there is even room for Gar Francis to fit another one in. “Cool Cool Baby” feels more like his signature sound (not that musicians should ever be confined to one sound or style), an astrutting, attitude-soaked slice of entertaining rock and roll, a timeless treasure, and a sonic sanctuary for us aging rockers.

And there you go, another show put to bed, another wealth of music to explore, another fightback against the comfort and conformity of a music industry that often seems like it is just going through the motions. Here we have plenty of music to keep you content until Christmas comes around, and I’m not just talking about this Christmas!