Rhododendron

Topette!! are an Anglo-French dance band of great verve. It would be a curmudgeon of great resolve who could resist the summons to the dance floor of Barnaby Stradling's alluring acoustic bass guitar, Andy Cutting's seductive melodeon and James Delarre's luscious fiddle, the gently assertive bodhrán of Tania Buisse and Julien Cartonnet's enticing tenor banjo. This is an unusual line-up for a folk dance band and Topette!!'s music appeals as much to inquisitive ears as itchy feet.

They surprise: the bass and fiddle opening of the eponymous track, a Stradling composition, is excitingly fast and unfamiliar before the melody is taken up by Cartonnet's gloriously gutsy French bagpipes leading into ‘Foutou’, a bourée à trois temps. Ten comes ‘Civet de Chevreuil’ a gentler mazurka with a swing. ‘Bloomsbury Market’ is an English tune from Playford's book The Dancing Master but the bass and bodhrán opening sound more 1973 than 1703. ‘Galician Sher’ is a klezmer tune and ‘VinterValsen’ is Scandinavian. Topette!!'s music can't be called fusion, but it is interestingly infused. All these tunes are arranged, but only to an extent, there is plenty of space for improvisation. Topette!! have an attractive spontaneity and yet a careful, detailed musicality. It is a winning combination.