I bet it is safe to say that many readers will never have heard of the Dutch band Blowbeat. Except maybe if you are a musician and grew up in this neighbourhood. Which is quite a shame as I feel that Blowbeat are a great band with one of the wittiest lyricists (still) around amongst their ranks. Who also happens to be the principal songwriter, singer and guitar player. As well as the guy responsible for teaching me my first steps on the six string.
So now mister Ton Engels (that surname translates to English…) has decided it is time for another turn in his lengthy career and crafted a fresh batch of his delicious songs. Influenced as always by funk, rock, country, pop and a dash of blues and fusion, Mister Inglish is a bit of a pimped Blowbeat if you ask me. Why pimped? Well, there are keyboards (amongst other a great hammond), female backing singers and some other instrumentalists joining in on the core of the band that, besides Ton, consists of various Blowbeat members. And all these guys are killer musicians!
But hey I don´t mind what I have to call it. As long as I get songs like Fan Mail (great riff and groove), Skeleton or Visit The Spot (does humour belong in music?). Or any other track actually, they are all well crafted and executed to perfection. It has bugged me for years that these guys are not big, no matter in what corner of the world (besides ours, here they are household names, ehr, in my house anyway) so I am happy to point you to this album. Make sure you buy it!