Music
Press
This is as unique a band as you are ever going to see. It’s also a credit to Oxford’s transit camp like social scene, that such eclectic and gifted people should separately fetch up in our gothic pile and make our lives that much brighter.
Tonight, in front of the Port’s mirrored mantelpiece, they appear for all the world like a collection of eccentric oddities brought back by some Victorian explorer to entertain his friends in his drawing room. On hurdy gurdy and harmonica there is Mauro Sanin, like an extra from a Vemeer painting. Dave ‘Purple’ Hart, from Blairgowerie, resplendent in silk Indian dress, alternately plays tabla, melodica and djembe. Su Jordon from Hampshire is on double bass, and then there’s throbbing dynamo of the band, Steve Larkin from Leeds, like John Cooper Clark after way too much coffee. It’s his burly northern-ness that drives the folk-punk whole along, with his out of breath lyrics; part philosophy, part hysterically funny humour, complemented in an astoundingly beautiful way by the union of the hurdy gurdy and melodica. Some of the songs – ‘Psycho Juliet’, ‘Melody’ – come out of Steve’s tortuous past love life, indeed, their “hit”, ‘Fat Sex’ is a raucously amusing song made up from the headlines in women’s magazines found in one of their loos. But it’s the nuances and individual talent that so wrong foot you as you smugly think you have a handle on them. Not only do they cover ‘White Rabbit’ by Jefferson Airplane, and ‘I Started A Joke’ by the Bee Gees with supreme aplomb, but then Su takes centre stage and sings a song called ‘History Repeats Itself’ in a jaw-droppingly sweet voice that makes Harriet Wheeler sound like a navvy. This followed by Dave, giving demonstration of Mongolian throat singing, a sound akin to high pitched gargling through a bagpipe drone, that makes your eardrums tingle. Inflatable Buddha are proof that you don’t know everything, that you will never know everything, and consequently they leave you, clapping like a grateful Sea lion, with a big fat smile.
Paul Carrera - Nightshift Magazine
This is as unique a band as you are ever going to see. It’s also a credit to Oxford’s transit camp like social scene, that such eclectic and gifted people should separately fetch up in our gothic pile and make our lives that much brighter.
Tonight, in front of the Port’s mirrored mantelpiece, they appear for all the world like a collection of eccentric oddities brought back by some Victorian explorer to entertain his friends in his drawing room. On hurdy gurdy and harmonica there is Mauro Sanin, like an extra from a Vemeer painting. Dave ‘Purple’ Hart, from Blairgowerie, resplendent in silk Indian dress, alternately plays tabla, melodica and djembe. Su Jordon from Hampshire is on double bass, and then there’s throbbing dynamo of the band, Steve Larkin from Leeds, like John Cooper Clark after way too much coffee. It’s his burly northern-ness that drives the folk-punk whole along, with his out of breath lyrics; part philosophy, part hysterically funny humour, complemented in an astoundingly beautiful way by the union of the hurdy gurdy and melodica. Some of the songs – ‘Psycho Juliet’, ‘Melody’ – come out of Steve’s tortuous past love life, indeed, their “hit”, ‘Fat Sex’ is a raucously amusing song made up from the headlines in women’s magazines found in one of their loos. But it’s the nuances and individual talent that so wrong foot you as you smugly think you have a handle on them. Not only do they cover ‘White Rabbit’ by Jefferson Airplane, and ‘I Started A Joke’ by the Bee Gees with supreme aplomb, but then Su takes centre stage and sings a song called ‘History Repeats Itself’ in a jaw-droppingly sweet voice that makes Harriet Wheeler sound like a navvy. This followed by Dave, giving demonstration of Mongolian throat singing, a sound akin to high pitched gargling through a bagpipe drone, that makes your eardrums tingle. Inflatable Buddha are proof that you don’t know everything, that you will never know everything, and consequently they leave you, clapping like a grateful Sea lion, with a big fat smile.
Paul Carrera - Nightshift Magazine
Artist: Inflatable Buddha
Title: Demo
Tracklisting: 1. Psycho Juliet, 2. Fat Sex, 3. Skeeter, 4. End of the World, 5. Throat Singing
Reviewer: Lellie
Inflatable Buddha describe themselves as a 5-piece caberet-world-punk-skiffle act based in Oxford.. That's one way of putting it I guess. They're a little undescribable. Funny, exciting and complete hippies, they're more suited to sunny Glastonbury or Truck festival than they are to your stereo but this demo is a little insight to their live show - something you must behold!
The eclectic selection of instruments goes some way to describing their individual sound. Accordian, tabla, melodica, hurdy-gurdy, harmonica, bass clarinet, mouth harp. These are just a few of the strange and wonderful instruments enlisted to create the diverse and strange soundscapes which are the average Inflatable Buddha song.
The demo launches with 'Psycho Juliet' - a catchy little song, full of crazy instrumentation and silly lyrics.
Highlight of this demo and a memorable part of the live show, 'Fat Sex' describes the nature of womans' magazines and the effect of media on the female image. "It's the fat sex, the fat sex, the fat sex appeal". This satirical ditty features so many great lines it would be impossible to quote them all. These funny lines are chanted by performance poet Steve Larkin over the strange sounds of hurdy-gurdy and hippy style percussion. It ends with "If women get obsessed completely with sex, men already are so then there's nothing left", which is a fitting end to an amusing song.
The other two tracks, 'End of The World' and 'Throat Singing' are further insights into the crazy world of Inflatable Buddha. As you might imagine 'Throat Singing' involves lots of strange throaty-vocals over the top of some random drum rhythms.
A truly weird and wonderful band, with a fittingly strange little demo. Inflatable Buddha are one of the most original and individual bands around.
from http://www.sonance.co.uk/reviews/archives/00000081.php - www.sonance.co.uk
Artist: Inflatable Buddha
Title: Demo
Tracklisting: 1. Psycho Juliet, 2. Fat Sex, 3. Skeeter, 4. End of the World, 5. Throat Singing
Reviewer: Lellie
Inflatable Buddha describe themselves as a 5-piece caberet-world-punk-skiffle act based in Oxford.. That's one way of putting it I guess. They're a little undescribable. Funny, exciting and complete hippies, they're more suited to sunny Glastonbury or Truck festival than they are to your stereo but this demo is a little insight to their live show - something you must behold!
The eclectic selection of instruments goes some way to describing their individual sound. Accordian, tabla, melodica, hurdy-gurdy, harmonica, bass clarinet, mouth harp. These are just a few of the strange and wonderful instruments enlisted to create the diverse and strange soundscapes which are the average Inflatable Buddha song.
The demo launches with 'Psycho Juliet' - a catchy little song, full of crazy instrumentation and silly lyrics.
Highlight of this demo and a memorable part of the live show, 'Fat Sex' describes the nature of womans' magazines and the effect of media on the female image. "It's the fat sex, the fat sex, the fat sex appeal". This satirical ditty features so many great lines it would be impossible to quote them all. These funny lines are chanted by performance poet Steve Larkin over the strange sounds of hurdy-gurdy and hippy style percussion. It ends with "If women get obsessed completely with sex, men already are so then there's nothing left", which is a fitting end to an amusing song.
The other two tracks, 'End of The World' and 'Throat Singing' are further insights into the crazy world of Inflatable Buddha. As you might imagine 'Throat Singing' involves lots of strange throaty-vocals over the top of some random drum rhythms.
A truly weird and wonderful band, with a fittingly strange little demo. Inflatable Buddha are one of the most original and individual bands around.
from http://www.sonance.co.uk/reviews/archives/00000081.php - www.sonance.co.uk
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
INFLATABLE BUDDHA was born in autumn 2003 when we played our first official gig at Oxford’s live music venue The Exeter Hall. The as yet unnamed band spotted its future namesake perched on a shelf in the corner – and there the story began.
With performance poet Steve Larkin (International Champion at Canada’s 2004 Spoken Word Olympics, co-founder of Oxford’s renowned Hammer & Tongue Poetry Slam) as a compelling frontman, the band’s versatile bedrock of support was initially provided by the unique combination of multi-instrumentalist ‘Purple’ Dave Hart, blues harmonica/Galician hurdy-gurdy player Mauro Sanin and vocalist and bassist Su Jordan. With the return of the greatly missed Mauro to his Iberian homeland, the numbers were restored by the addition of superb local accordionist Rupert Alison, and more recently, of multi-instrumentalist Simon Reece on sitar, banjo and more.
With a repertoire of original co-written material on themes as diverse as il/liberal landlords; original sin; giant man-eating insects; the end of the world; white blood cells; the media’s control of the female image; and (of course!) the lessons to be learned in love, INFLATABLE BUDDHA put a strong environmental and political message across with a punch and a hefty dose of humour. We seem to defy easy categorisation, but have been variously described as ‘an acid-crazed hippie's wet dream’, ‘art-punk-folk-poets’ and 'the biggest laugh of the weekend' at Oxford Folk Festival (read more comments here) - though there’s really nothing for it but to see us live and make your own mind up! Our aim is to satisfy: if you've not seen something enjoyable, memorable and - and above all - FUN at one of our gigs, then we've failed. Our gig archive here seems to suggest that we get away with it most of the time. :-)
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