The Mummers - Tale to Tell

If Alice in Wonderland took an acid-fuelled day trip along Brighton pier, decided to turn her hand to a Fisher-Price xylophone, before partaking in a spot of light trapeze artistry with Björk, Fiona Apple and Rilo Kiley, she’d probably want to be listening to Tale to Tell while she did it. Raissa Khan-Panni (vocals), Mark Horwood (music) and Paul Sandrone (production), have popped out a polished 10 track ensemble effort that floats from full scale orchestral narratives through circus snare beats to inspired trumpet solos via some pretty forgettable lyrics. While the whole thing is hung together better than a donkey on the beach, the substance behind the smooth veneer is somewhat lacking. The cinematic shine on tracks like See Alice (yup, that subtle), flag up Horwood’s previous work in film; but, rather than flicking on some transcendental projector of the mind, these moments all point towards botched imagery and the missing stories that the ‘Tale’ disappointingly fails to tell.