Saturday 05/04/03 Mint Royale @ The Lomax, Liverpool

Pumping-funksters Mint Royale surprisingly found themselves un-overlooked for once when 'Sexiest Man In Jamaica' became the tune to groove to around socialite bars last summer. Tonight, however, the predominant phrase of 'and the girls all love me, and I shall never grow old' sounds hollow and slightly laughable, considering the aesthetically challenged ensemble that confronts all 'de girls'.

The maintenance of boom-chi boom-chi high-hat rhythms coupled with everlasting-gobstopper funk bass prevails pretty much throughout, with barely a smirk from the two-synth players that bop and nod with the nonchalance of Thunderbird Brains. Still, they do create a lot of foot shuffling, and certainly entertain Mr White-Jeans-and-Sandals who continues to dance goofily around with his hands in the air. Occasional employment of scruffy bloke on guitar livens up the sound somewhat, and provides sultry vocals on the fragmented, swooning lament of 'Princess'.

Morphing into gravel-voiced dance blues, some innovation becomes apparent, akin to a 'glo-stick' Gomez, or the Music without the razor guitar and manic Harvey jigging. Regrettably though, when things do pick up pace at this point, not even the bass can pump sufficiently hard enough to disguise some pretty shoddy rap lyrics: 'this is the groove gonna make you move'. Ergh.

Photo by Sean Bickerton :: sean.bickerton@gigwise.com