Offering undeniably superb musicianship in a sun-drenched Cuban-soul context that sounds several worlds removed from the Ireland whence they came, Zrazy’s open-hearted, unequivocally lesbian love songs provided a massive breath of fresh air upon their early-90s emergence. They invariably gave great interview (‘Every man should experience another man’s tongue down his throat’), and were more than able to walk the walk, with Carole Nelson’s sax-and-piano virtuosity a perfect complement to Maria Walsh’s smoky vocals.
A decade on, the babes are back with Dream On, a languid, summery, café-jazz concoction of light breezy continental soul, the sort that might soundtrack a night in the Blue Note. At its best, Dream On’s Latino inflections and free-form structures invoke the sensual uplift of the Buena Vista Social Club. Unfortunately, some of the tracks meander to little discernable purpose, sounding like Sade out-takes: Carole Nelson’s saxophone workouts display plenty of technical virtuosity but exude very little warmth, and with only two of the eleven tracks clocking in under the five-minute mark, much of Dream On seems determined to exasperate the patience of anyone who isn’t a card-carrying Miles Davis nut.
Redemption does arrive with the last two songs, infinitely more focused than what’s gone before: their reading of ancient trad air ‘The Water Is Wide’, and the oceanic, almost Astral Weeks-like ‘Amen’ are downright moving.
Plenty of background pleasures for those who appreciate such things, then, but as one who flinches in horror at the mere mention of the words ‘nine-minute funkathon’, it’s fair to say this won’t be displacing Early Fall from the Fitzsimons stereo in a hurry.