Last Chance Disco is the second studio album by British

punk jazz Punk jazz is a genre of music that combines elements of jazz, especially improvisation, with the instrumentation and performance style of punk rock. The term was first used to describe James Chance and the Contortions' 1979 album '' Buy''. Pun ...

band Acoustic Ladyland. It was released on 16 May 2005 by

Babel Label Babel Label is a jazz record label founded in 1994 by Oliver Weindling that specialises in British jazz, particularly the London scene. It released more than 130 recordings in its first 20 years, two of which were nominated for the Mercury Pri ...

Background

''Last Chance Disco'' was created as a reaction to

Pete Wareham Pete Wareham is a British saxophonist, composer and band leader. He led the genre-defying North African/punk/jazz/dance band Melt Yourself Down and was a member of Nadine Shah’s Mercury Prize-nominated band, Seb Rochford’s Pulled By Magnets ...

's frustration with jazz, and his desire to fuse jazz with the "ethic and fun of

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

". The album has been called a mixture of "the language of jazz with the rhetoric of instrumental rock" by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. The album has also been described as being "closer to

thrash metal Thrash metal (or simply thrash) is an Extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music characterized by its overall aggression and fast tempo.Kahn-Harris, Keith, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'', pp. 2–3, 9. Oxford: Berg, ...

and

grindcore Grindcore is an extreme metal, extreme fusion genre of heavy metal music, heavy metal and hardcore punk that originated in the mid-1980s, drawing inspiration from abrasive-sounding musical styles, such as thrashcore, crust punk, hardcore punk, e ...

than jazz" in an article describing the band as "an electric jazz band that plays dirty rock 'n' roll, or a dirty rock 'n' roll band that plays electric jazz". The band promoted the album on the UK television show '' Later... with Jools Holland'' shortly after the album's release. ''Last Chance Disco'' gained critical acclaim from reviewers on release, ''

Jazzwise ''Jazzwise'' is a British monthly magazine focused on jazz, launched in 1997. The magazine covers a range of jazz sub-genres and provides news coverage, a national gig guide, a jazz-on-film page, feature articles, and a review section that evalua ...

'' ultimately naming it the best album of 2005 in their end of year poll. ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'' also ranked the album in their end of year list, calling it the 85th best album of the 2005 (in any genre). As well as receiving praise for the album, the band themselves won 'Best Band' at the

BBC Jazz Awards The BBC Jazz Awards were set up in 2001 and had the status of one of the premier jazz awards in the United Kingdom (among those presenting the awards were Denis Lawson, Sue Mingus, Humphrey Lyttelton, Ian Carr, Clive James, Michael Gibbs (compose ...

in the same year.

Critical reception

John L Walters in ''

'' calls the album "an all-out assault on the senses", stating that "this is the least "smooth" jazz album in years". ''

All About Jazz ''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near ...

'' write that ''Last Chance Disco'' is "a near seamless flow of rapid fire explosions, postmodern beats, raucous instrumental exuberance, passion, anger and, indefinably but unmistakably, hope and optimism" and say that this album is a "punk jazz orgasm you don't want to miss". The ''

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

'' review states that this album is "the first classic of the post-jazz movement" and describes an album of "life-affirmingly dumb shrieks, stomps and power chords". Ian Mann writes that ''Last Chance Disco'' is "one of the albums of 2005 in any genre, and highly recommended to adventurous rock fans as well as hardcore jazz followers" in his review. ''

Stylus Magazine ''Stylus Magazine'' was an American online music and film magazine, launched in 2002 and co-founded by Todd L. Burns. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog. Addi ...

'' wrote in their review that "the whole damn album is just great ... a relentless ska-punk-jazz-metal conglomeration that shouldn’t work but does".

Track listing

All songs written by

except where stated. All songs arranged by Acoustic Ladyland # "Iggy" – 1:56 # "Om Konz" – 5:49 # "Deckchair" – 4:05 # "Remember" (P Wareham, M Wareham) – 5:44 # "Perfect Bitch" (P Wareham, M Wareham) – 1:58 # "Ludwig Van Ramone" – 4:37 # "High Heel Blues" (P Wareham, M Wareham) – 2:02 # "Trial And Error" – 4:47 # "Thing" – 2:38 # "Of You" (P Wareham, Seb Rochford) – 4:39 # "Nico" – 4:42

Personnel

–

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

s *Tom Cawley – keyboards *Tom Herbert –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

* Sebastian Rochford –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

References

{{Authority control 2005 albums Acoustic Ladyland albums Babel Label albums