Rhinoceros

In case you haven’t yet heard, the Green Rock River Band are a London-based eight-piece purveying acoustic music infused by old-time Americana, folk, vaudeville, jazz, blues, British music-hall and country music. If that sounds like a bewildering mixture, let me assuage your consternation here and now. The Green Rock River Band make thoroughly entertaining, quirky, eccentric and largely familiar-sounding music.

Singer Jeremy Sachs leads off the proceedings with a fine impression of Tom Waits or Nick Cave on ‘Charlie Stork's Blues’, a shuffle-step number punctuated by Sarah Mann's exquisite trombone accompaniment. A hoedown titled ‘Angry Ferret’ follows, featuring Matt Markwick's considerable fiddling skills. Next up is the rollicking pub-crawl anthem, ‘Drink Here ‘Til I Die’, during which most of the band take a veering turn at the wheel. The highlight of Rhinoceros is ‘Rosie Ann’, a contemporary take on a traditional ballad form, featuring Sachs trading possibly non-ironic romantic sentiments with Rebecca Freeman while DJ Walde does a human beatbox thing. If that all sounds like a barrel of snarky hoot-owls, it is. It's also well-deserving of your affections.