Earlier this year, the five-piece anglo-French dance band Topette!! released Bourdon, a welcome follow-up to their releases C’est Le Pompon and Rhododendron.
The band describe themselves as “a true collective – bonded as much by the joy found in each other’s company as in their shared musical vision”. To quote our last review, the band features the tightly united front-line powerhouse combo of fiddle/viola ace James Delarre and diatonic accordion/melodeon man Andy Cutting, sparring off against or in tandem with Julien Cartonnet’s bagpipes and banjo, against which pounds the overwhelmingly “present” engine-room of Tania Buisse’s driving bodhrán and Barn Stradling’s unmistakable, earth-shakingly inventive bass lines that so compellingly combine the qualities of depth and breadth.
Taken from Bourdon, we have the pleasure of premiering their new video for Just Heavy which was filmed by Simon Houlihan. This is a Stradling tune based on the Rond de St. Vincent, “blinking in the morning sun after the long hibernation”.
Festive Sale: If you’d like to experience more of their intoxicating grooves, you can enjoy a 10% discount on purchases via their Bandcamp page. Just enter the discount code “shopette” during checkout. The offer runs throughout December.
Topette!! will emerge from hibernation in the spring for “Spielkurs”, a workshop course in Germany, at the end of April (see website: https://www.spielkurs.de/).
Then in June, they have their own residential workshop weekend planned at the excellent Halsway Manor – Centre for Folk Arts, in Somerset – https://halswaymanor.org.uk/event/topette-weekend/
Keep an eye on their website for upcoming summer tour dates: https://www.topette.co.uk/