By the time I get to Dumfries I will be clean and sober. Or maybe not as strange things happen in the land of amateur music in that part of the world. Nevertheless, I suppose it is no surprise that a band would exhume some fairly obscure Burns poetry and spray it with a modern day high tec plastic coating and that is exactly what Six Notes have done here.
Of course, robotic rhythms do not, on the surface at least, lend themselves to the task of transmitting the passion of Bard’s immortal words. The Six Notes solution to that little conundrum was to decorate said songs with some appealing female vocals. Gillian Landsburgh takes most of the load and handles things with a cultured efficiency while Amy Landsburgh – presumably a relative? – sounds less comfortable but manages, despite her stylistic imperfections (and an uncomfortable key in “New Year’s Day”) to infuse the lyrics with an endearing mix of diffidence and innocence. Whilst Amy's take on "I Dream'd I Lay" was a highpoint, the star turn, however, was a collaboration with Sister Savage (aka Tess Savigear) on “By Allan Stream” that took the words of Ayrshire’s finest off on an entirely successful ethereal trip into the land of cloud floating ambient electronica.
Whilst chopping a few songs out would have made for a stronger album, “Burns Reimagined” has nonetheless more than a few things going in its favour. Worthy of investigation.
The album is available from the usual download sites such as Amazon and Routenote.