'In this way I shall preserve many things that would otherwise be lost in oblivion. I shall find daily employment for myself, which will save me from indolence and help to keep off the spleen, and I shall lay up a store of entertainment for my after life.'

For James Boswell posts please follow the labels on the right.

This blog mainly contains reviews from the Edinburgh Festivals from 2008 to 2010 which I wrote for the Edinburgh Festivals Magazine. These reviews cover everything from comedy to contemporary dance; children's theatre to Handel.


Tuesday 25 October 2011

Be-Dom Review

2012? Apocalypse! Then what? Little would remain in the smouldering landscape, to be sure, beside the odd cockroach, pile of nuclear waste and stray fringe flier. In this Post-Apocalyptic fantasy, civilization itself would have vanished; no more Magic Flute, no more Ninth Symphony. Instead out of the smoke we could expect to see a gallant clutch of Portuguese musicians emerging: ‘Be-Dom’. Looking like they’ve emerged from homeless shelter, the group would take up worn out oil drums, cans and buckets for instruments and start to rebuild music.

Make no mistake, all this is loud, percussive and pretty primitive – we even get a smattering of Neanderthal like grunts from the tribe. ‘Harmony’ has not yet been invented. Yet this obscures a very well-rehearsed group who work brilliantly as a team, running the show like a well-oiled machine. 

Despite the impending decay from nuclear apocalypse, humour is not totally lost. The laughs come from equally primitive slapstick, and ‘Be-Dom’ wouldn’t look out of place in a silent movie were it not for the music. The fact that barely one coherent syllable is uttered by the group also serves to accentuate the humour.

A great Mad Max vision of music after universal disaster: bring on the Apocalypse. 

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