VELVET THUNDER

Those of a certain age may remember the TV programmes they showed during the school holidays many of which were foreign (often French), cheaply made and very badly dubbed but they were for children and not adults so we loved them. These programmes from halcyon days came to mind when I first heard this album as their soundtracks were normally wistful tunes delivered by seductively breathless singers that, once in your brain, were destined to stay there forever.

I was certain that The Last Hurrah(!!) Would prove to be a French band but, no, they are Norwegian and part of a journey in search of a lost world put together by producer and musician HP Gundersen with Modern Nostalgia now being album number five in the project.

The frame of reference for Gundersen is that special and oft-times hippy community influenced psychedelic era of the American West Coast colliding with the evocative period of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin and Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood to give, as it were, something of a French Byrds. Sounds odd and quirk (which it is) but it is most definitely infused with a golden nostalgia that you simply cannot resist and it sweeps you along on a delightful tide of joy.

Gundersen has an ever-revolving team of musicians for his projects and they have all invested heavy by infusing the music with a passion and love that shines through their performances and if you have a love of left-of-centre pop and all things Sixties especially like Kites by Simon Dupree and the Big Sound (the precursors to Gentle Giant) then this will be a real blast.