Barry Adamson

Dark and smooth, semi-sordid and of the night, the music of Barry Adamson always seemed strangely onomatopoeic - it sounds much like he is. A veteran of The Bad Seeds and various soundtrack work, the lightness of the opening tracks of his latest solo effort, 'Back To The Cat' was a bit of a surprise.

"I realised quite early on the playfulness [of this album], almost like following a little cat around a room," Adamson says with a smile in his voice as he follows the twee analogy. "It was like 'where are you going now mate?' I was really happy to just go with that, and that carried on. I have been down a few dark roads in my time, so I was able to take a look down there and bring that in, be more creative in an objective sense, rather than in the personal sense. I was quite happy to go with it - if there was an aim in it I'm not sure, but that is the direction it seemed to take."

'Back To The Cat' has the whimsy of Bacharach, kitsch Hammond organ and moments that could make Tom Jones blush - Adams has created an album of upbeat, Sixties style dirty big band. Straight Til Sunrise is a strident, spring in the step road song, and Shadow Of Death Hotel is a grunge Bond instrumental. He debuted the album on London's Southbank during his stint as curator of the London Jazz Festival.

"It was good opportunity, almost a road test before the final cut, a unique opportunity. They went really well," Adamson enthuses. "I think the way the tunes stand up on the album, it comes across really well. A lot of melodic ideas in there, a positive review in 'The Times' the next day, so it was a good experience really."

Curator of a leading jazz festival is quite an extraordinary gig for an artist who has been working on the fringes of modern rock since he taught himself the bass and joined Magazine as a teenager in the Seventies. Though his own sound has always used horns and jazz tropes, Adamson is by no standards a pure genre artist.

"Yes it was totally left of centre - what they wanted was somebody left of centre, they didn't want somebody traditional, the straight up wallpaper effect. Throughout my music there are sprinklings of jazz I guess and ideas that come from that school, I use it in soundtrack work, etc. So I think they thought if they got me in at the table it would be a bit different, which hopefully it was, in the audiences that we did bring in. That is the beauty of London, that we are able to use the various styles of all of the walks of life that come through and bring them together."

"I brought the more traditional jazz Mantana Roberts Quartet, which are also quite experimental, and she blew everyone's minds a bit."

The quartet feature on Adamson's label cum art hub Central Control, which is also where he fosters some wild and wide ranging sounds. "The idea behind it was really to be a little arthouse, to be able to bring out records and books, and have a little art shop running under that roof," he explains.

Now, after many visits to Australia under many guises, Adamson will tour under the name Barry Adamson for the first time in support of 'Back To The Cat'.

"When we play the album out it will be that group, pretty much the people who played on the record, but it will be a smaller group than the London group," he explains. "I tend to throw in stuff from the earlier albums and make excursions into stuff that has a more soundtrack feel, we go off on a ten minute musical excursion into that world and come back. Mainly I guess we will play about the seven or so songs from 'Back To The Cat' and then from various other albums."

Unfortunately the tour is currently scheduled to skip Adelaide, though Adamson assures me they are trying to improve that sordid omission. His evocation of the dark underbelly lurking beneath us would really suit this town.

Narelle Walker

'Back To The Cat' is out now through Inertia.