C'est Le Pompon

This new acoustic dance band announce their intention not just in the title of their first CD – C'est Le Pompon is roughly the equivalent of ‘That Takes the Biscuit’ – but in their two-exclamation-mark name. They kick off with ‘Venture’, an Andy Cutting composition, with his diatonic accordion gently prodding the tune into life. It gets faster and faster until, after half a minute, the rhythm section guitar wakes up and the band take off. Tania Buisse's bodhrán and Barnaby Stradling's unusually hefty acoustic bass are crucial to Topette!!'s distinctive sound.
That this is an Anglo-French collaboration becomes clear in ‘Bourrée Morvandelle’ and ‘La Lustrée’, with Julien Cartonnet's bagpipes dancing over the almost hurdy-gurdy sounds produced by James Delarre's violin and Cutting's accordion. Delarre's fiddle comes to the fore, and the versatile Cartonnet swaps pipes for banjo in ‘Balfour Road’ and the great Morris dance tune, ‘Old Molly Oxford’. The conversation between France and the UK continues throughout the album, as does that between traditional and new compositions. Topette!! deserve their exclamation marks; this is a pleasure.