Haiku Salut - Tricolore Album Review

Haiku Salut are a band who create music well outside of 'the box' and it's clear they share a love for most percussion instruments; Xylophones and keyboards which are probabaly older than the majority of their fans. If you find yourself yearning for something different or something more, this trio's diverse, unique sound is something that you need in your life. This is the type of album that other musicians would want to listen to in order to move away from their own genre and gain new inspiration. This trio's debut 'Tricolore' has such an uplifting positive feel to it that even if the weather is crap outside and you are feeling down, the music from this will bring sun light into your soul.

This purely instrumental album doesn't suffer from lack of vocals as the music says everything it needs to. In parts, Haiku Salut lean towards classical styles but it doesn't take long to find yourself immersed into something that wouldn't sound out of place on a retro computer game; 'Sounds Like There's A Pacman Crunching Away At Your Heart' not only proves this but says exactly how it sounds! Madness!

Next we fly into 'Leaf Stricken' and straight away it's easy to imagine one of the more commercial DJs sampling this to create a track that would give most advert music supervisors a wet dream. 'Watanabe' showcases simple yet incredibly effective piano playing, which might leave your own fingers feeling a little tired without playing a single note, but wow.

The great thing about 'Tricolore' is that you think you know what is coming next, but that's never the case; 'Glockenbar' sounds like it was created in a minor state of madness and might leave the listener with a slight anxiety, however this is followed by 'Train Tracks For Wheezy' which brings you back down to a mellow state.

The structure of 'Tricolore' is very clever and is constantly stimulating the listener yet there's a beauty embedded in the creations which is where the real aural joy is delivered. So as it is said, women are better at multi-tasking than men and, with the amount of instruments Louise Croft, Gemma Barkerwood and Sophie Barkerwood have managed to fit into this album, there can only be one thing left to say, we Salute you (really could not resist).

Mark Moore