Das Contras – Das Contras

Sounding like the soundtrack to a bandito showdown at a seventies lounge party, opening ditty Reckless Phase may try to be the life and soul of the party but with horn interludes around every corner and self-deprecatingly dated guitar solos there is no way that this album has been made with this decade in mind. No, this is jazz-funk with a conga twist that is as absurd as that description sounds and, despite being well-produced and undoubtedly well-performed, it's difficult to take seriously.

After all, the woefully deliberate reggae of Don’t Plant a Seed and its outlandish organ solos couldn’t have been written with a straight face, surely. There's a brief period at the end of the album where the general air of liveliness becomes borderline enjoyable but since that's come only after a relentless stream of musical cliches, it's really a case of too little, too late.