SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: PENGUIN CAFE – RAIN BEFORE SEVEN

Penguin Cafe
Rain Before Seven
Erased Tapes

Back in the 80s, they were Penguin Cafe Orchestra, and Simon Jeffes and his crew made a series of utterly charming albums that had the sound of a string band playing on a patio, always on the edge of falling apart, but never doing so.

These days they are still around, under the guidance of Simon’s son Arthur and under a shortened name of Penguin Cafe and their latest offering Rain Before Seven not only keeps the connection with the original sound (those penguin masks are still around too), but updates the sound to a more widescreen, almost cinematic sound, as the introductory “Welcome to London” aptly shows.

The tendency to combine stringed instruments with some that seemingly don’t belong with them, like steelpan drums in the heartwarming tribute to late composer and pianist Harold Budd (“Re: Budd”), is still there, as is keeping the connection to light classical music as part of their inspiration (“Second Variety”).

At the same time it is all wrapped in perfectly thought-out arrangements, that give the original Penguin Cafe Orchestra sound a new dimension, that works in full.

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