'tamatebako' is the collaboration album between Mike Watt (who co-founded bands like The Minutemen, Dos, and Firehose, and who has taken on bass duties with the reformed Stooges), and Sam Dook (from Brighton's The Go! Team, who combine indie and garage rock with film scores including blaxploitation and Bollywood).
The album has been eight years in the making, with conversations taking place between the two initially way back in 2006. Following on from this was a series of meet ups for demo sessions, and the sharing of home recorded demos which were squeezed into any available time slots that either could find within their heavy touring schedule.
So, after all that is it any good? Collaborations tend to be either excellent, think of the brilliant Johnny Cash American Recordings, or absolute crap, think David Bowie and Mick Jagger (or rather don't, it may bring back painful memories). 'tamatebako' falls somewhere closer to the former rather than the latter, thankfully. Though, whilst it is a good album, it is not more that the sum of its parts.
The reason for this, for me, seems to be the differences musically between the two. The Minutemen were an American post punk band whose stripped down music reflected accurately the early 1980s downturn under Reagan. The Go! Team, became active in the UK in 2000, a period of economic boom under Blair (with Thatcher only a bad memory) reflecting a more upbeat poppier era. Because of differences such as this, the music on this album can on occasion seem a little disjointed, however when it's good, it's very good...
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The opening track, 'Houdini' is an excellent opener with a loping bassline and a post punk spiralling guitar, mixed with some electronic effects that really add to the proceedings. The lyrics are a little abstract to say the least: - “I carry my name and thought collection/ Walk across the bridge of choice selection.”
The other side of the coin is the title track, 'tamatebako', which mixes poppy guitars with synth effects and oriental rhythms, which comes across as a difficult mish mash.
That said, overall, the good tracks by far outweigh the average, and whilst this is not an album that will set the world on fire, it is certainly one of which all of its contributors can feel justifiably proud.
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