Sharpener

The Hackney Colliery Band have achieved greater popularity than any other contemporary British brass band through regular performances and savvy marketing; among other things, they have ales and sausages bearing their insignia. Even their name manages to mix a hipster borough with the term used for the brass bands that once were a staple of northern mining towns. Having seen them perform, it's safe to assume none of them ever worked down a mine – their focus being a contemporary urban brass ensemble rather than authentic miners’ band. Here, they perform nine originals and three covers, all in their brass-with-a-touch-of-electronica style.

They are competent blowers who play assuredly but they don’t swing, lack ferocity and bring little imagination to the music. I’m unsure what the HCB are aiming for: this is not music that inspires community pride in the tradition of colliery bands, neither is it funky in the way great New Orleans brass ensembles are, nor is it wild and fluid like the best Balkan brass. Instead, it's jazz-flavoured but lacking the mercurial qualities that inspires the best jazz.