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A Band Called Quinn – The Beggar’s Opera (Tromolo)

4 stars
Theatre and pop music can often make embarrassingly naff bed-fellows, but when Louise Quinn and co appeared onstage in Vanishing Point’s audacious sci-fi reimagining of John Gay’s eighteenth-century satire, their live score was vital to the action. Decontextualised from performance, this studio interpretation remains a moodily melodramatic series of 1980s-electro tinged mucky stories from some leather-clad underworld. From the Morricone-styled gallop of ‘Here’s To Us’ and the breathy juke-box croon of ‘We Are The Scum,’ a triumphal up yours attitude prevails, while ‘The Fuse’ morphs a spoken-word centerpiece reminiscent of Tom Robinson’s ‘Power In The Darkness’ with the motorik disco of Katy Perry’s ‘Hot and Cold.’ Take that poshos!

The List, October 2010

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