ON – Live at the Jam Jar

A ‘topette’ is a shot of liquor. In Poitou-Charentes, where the band met, it means ‘Cheers!’. Topette!! is thus the perfect name for this French/English outfit. Their music, with the invigorating punch of a double tot, is cheerful, welcoming – a sonic hug.

The English contingent, Andy Cutting, Barn Stradling and James Delarre, provide pumping melodeon, powerful bass and sparking fiddle; the French, driving rhythms from Tania Buisse’s bodhrán and Julien Cartonnet’s squally bagpiping and banjo-picking of remarkable velocity.

ON – Live at the Jam Jar is Topette!!’s celebration of a decade together. It’s the band recorded in full flight at a favourite venue in Bristol; 14 tracks of instrumental bourées, jigs, polkas, traditional songs and original compositions.

‘Bourée Morvandelle’ lifts proceedings off with Cutting’s squeezebox rhythmically respiring before Stradling’s acoustic bass guitar kicks in and Cartonnet’s pipes come squealing over the top. In ‘Polka Know’ there are pauses when you can almost see dancers picking up and swinging their partners before the lovely tune hops on. ‘Pot Neuve’ is a tour de force melding of bodhrán and pipes. The sound grows even richer when, on the later tracks, Romain Chéré and Antoine Turpault step up, bringing more pipes and another squeezebox. It would have been great to have been jammed into The Jam Jar that night but with ON we can share the music – and something of the atmosphere.