:: Red Bantoo - Yesterday To The Rescue

Red Bantoo

Being a group that has appeared on the stages at not only Big Day Out but also the legendary Glastonbury Festival you would think that Australian two piece Red Bantoo would have enough style and talent to release an album a lot better than their latest offering, ‘Yesterday To The Rescue’. However this album is, at best, ‘hit-and-miss and it’s hard to see anybody other than genuine funk or groove fans even giving it a listen. ‘Yesterday To The Rescue’ kicks off with the very chilled ‘Stepped Up’ and then is sadly followed up with the very ordinary ‘Husky Stash’ that does absolutely nothing to make itself a standout. The album picks up a little with the groovy pop feel of ‘Sway A Little Closer’, it has a sound that you will fall in love with straight away, and is just too damn catchy to be ignored. But then once again another ordinary song steps forward, this time in the form of ‘Chinatown’, and it is at this time that you realise that Red Bantoo are at their best when they are vocals with their tracks. This is very obvious with the very jazzy ‘This Life’, while I couldn’t help but love the smooth R&B vibe of ‘Breeze’… it is the best track on the album. ‘Soul Pilgrim’ is the only non-vocal track on this album that seems to have any life at all, while a return to the R&B sound on ‘Bandit Queen’ makes it a worthy listen as well. ‘King Of Funk’ sounds like it would be better suited as a hip-hop sample than as a stand-alone song while ‘Cirqus Voltaire’ is just a plain, boring instrumental track. A waste of time really. While Red Bantoo certainly do have some talent, it seems they need to drop the instrumental tracks, because when they have vocals leading their music they sound awesome, but they fade away to a bore without them. ‘Yesterday To The Rescue’ certainly isn’t anything to write home about.