The Bookhouse Boys – The Bookhouse Boys

The Bookhouse Boys aren't one of those bands who like to keep their primary influences to themselves. The North London nine-piece, incorporating two trumpeters and two drummers, named themselves after the vigilante secret society on Twin Peaks and list David Lynch, Angelo Badalamenti and Ennio Morricone as their top three influences on Myspace. The group photos back it up, eight men in dark suits plus sole female (front and centre, obviously) sporting matching red dress and lipstick.Sure enough, the qualities primarily on show are the most noir filmic, a euphoric widescreen sound built on surf guitars, mariachi horns and an underlying ever present unsettling sense. After a Morricone-esque twanging instrumental overture introduction they fire right out of the blocks at full throttle with 'Dead', which in four minutes of quiet-loud crescendos evokes a collision between the Blue Velvet and Pulp Fiction soundtracks while providing ample space for the ragged drama of Paul van Oestren's voice, switching at will between a deep croon and wild-eyed preacher. 'Shoot You Down' sees him turn Lee Hazlewood almost too closely for comfort to co-vocalist Catherine Turner's Nancy Sinatra, a darkly melodramatic love/hate lust song/murder ballad that unpleasantly reverberates just so. They can do raucous, 'I Can't Help Myself' a rampaging beast resembling Pixies' electrified Spanish guitar chord changes lent to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds circa Let Love In, or possibly much underrated longtime Cave associates Gallon Drunk, and they can pull off a convincing swaying ballad in the Richard Hawley mode, as in 'Baby I Gotta Go'.So at their very best they're a scintillting prospect and doubtless they're a fine live band, but fatally they don't manage to sustain such heights throughout the album when they're often within reach. A few times arrangements evoke a mood looking for a song to ingratiate itself into only to find something underdeveloped. 'Yer Blue', for instance, rides on a Tex-Mex soundscape that recalls Calexico in their Mariachi period, accompanied by The Good, The Bad And The Ugly backing vocals and later embarking on a lengthy instrumental outro with distorted bottleneck guitars but doesn't develop anywhere from those building blocks. And crucially, as you may be able to tell by the continual comparisons above, their scope fits neatly into their chosen niche without often looking to expand beyond its stylistic boundaries and reveal that much of their own. Evoking Sergio Leone soundtracks and the music of latter day narrative auteurs is one thing, and it's not that well trodden a path so it still has an impact, but coming across something like 'Tonight', a close cousin of Urge Overkill's 'Girl You'll Be A Woman Soon' from Pulp Fiction, suggests the odd slip across the boundary dividing tribute from mere pastiche.That said, one thing the Bookhouse Boys aren't and you'd suggest could never be is straight pastiche, instead producing a meticulously crafted set that while not quite there never stints on the way, rewarding repeated plays, and is never less than an intriguing, emotional rollercoaster. 74%The Bookhouse Boys on Myspace