Bastila

Taking their name from a table football bar in Brno in the Czech Republic that the band haunted for the whole of a fateful holiday, Bastila take their horn-infused party-romping music to the next level with their self-titled debut album, out now. They signed to Rob da Bank’s Sunday Best label after winning a best local band competition giving them the opening slot kicking off the main stage at Bestival 2006 and suitably impressing the governor.

Described as ‘Mariachi reggae’ by one early fan of the band, one listen to their debut album will make it abundantly clear that Bastila possesses way too much blues-punk oomph for that description to stick. The original core of the band  –Adam Clark on guitar, Pat Dignan on drums and Cody Entwhistle on bass – grew up in the Shanklin/Ventnor area on the south coast of the Isle Of Wight. They came together initially as schoolmates at Sandown High, recruiting another schoolmate, Kevin Ledger, on trumpet along the way before enlisting vocalist,Christopher Turvey after a chance meeting in a pub.

The band members peer from the cover of their eponymous debut album that artist-designer Toby Whitebread has riffed on Love’s ‘Forever Changes’ cover art dropping any 1960s psychedelic airiness in favour of classical, confrontational portraiture. The music, within, however, produced by erstwhile Ride front-manMark Gardener, bursts with colour and sunshine, from the gypsy-flecked stomp of debut single ‘The Slacker’ to the unexpected Floydian guitar freak-out of’Ghosts’, via a host of other flavours, from infectious ska-pop stylings and flamenco guitars, to militant marching beats and brass led wig-outs, the album fuses the most unlikely of ingredients conjuring the joyful spirit of a knees up in the sun.

With influences as diverse as The Stone Roses, The Beta Band, and Gomez, Bastila are all about their invigorating, barnstorming live shows but anyone who hears the album will realise they’ve done a blinding job capturing that sizzling energy on their debut record.

‘Bastila’ is released on 1st June 2009 on Sunday Best Recordings.