Luke Toms

Many moons ago, I sat at a Christmas Eve table adorned with all the festive trimmings. My friend’s Dad and my Dad ' children of the '30’s ' put on one of their favourite records and while one mimed the words whilst playing the spoons and the other drummed on the Christmas pudding, their children looked rather perplexed. As the song finished its alternative jazz journey, our faces were models of confusion. I could have sworn I heard air raid sirens in the background.

I’ll never forget the name ' Al Bowlly. 'The King,' smiles Luke Toms, 'He’s an absolute legend, his voice is unbelievable, so beautiful. It has this hazy romance about it'.

And so it does. I suppose it’s also fitting that short of the royalty comment, so does Luke Toms’.

This four track EP released this month on Island Records is a hazily romantic journey through alternative jazz and self-taught multi-instrumental 'life and pre-war jazz'. He is a vastly talented musician proclaiming his love for music through the medium of moustache sung progressive rock/jazz which seems to tempt at the boundary of musical rules.

This debut EP is full of hope, soul-enhanced vocals and experimentation. His dressing up box apparently ranges from cravats and 1920’s outfits to Elizabethan ruffles, slicing a thick fashion gash through the floppy haired mainstream crooners of recent years. Like his clothes, his music represents ideas and a degree of uniquity based on past mediums, and what he succeeds in doing is creating an image and sound which ought to be seen and heard.