Yes, Gummi Bako. Nuts he may be, but he can certainly write music. If you’ve ever seen him live, then you’ll know that during performances Mr. Bako has the habit of morphing into something akin to Beeker from the Muppet Show with ten thousand volts coursing through him. There’s a sort of deranged, wild-eyed squawk that makes an appearance from time to time and can be, for the first little while, rather terrifying.

I first saw a Gummi Bako solo slot at last year’s Homegame and although I thought he was nuts, there was something oddly compelling about the music, and certainly the performance. The full band performed at the recent Fence Night at The Caves in Edinburgh and although the oddness was still there, it was a slightly less prominent due to the presence of guitars, which resulted in a rock ‘n’ roll performance that was a little easier to grasp. Then he played again this year, again a largely solo set, with Elle and Uncle Beesly joining him on bass and guitar respectively and some splendid washboard percussion. Something strange was happening to me; I was really starting to like this stuff. The weirdness just seemed to melt into the music and the whole thing was making sense all of sudden. Don’t ask me how this happened, but I blame some sort of wicked Fife spell myself.

Anyhow, on his page on the Fence site Gummi Bako is described as wonky-tonk, and I think that fits pretty perfectly. There are a couple of CDs, amongst other things, available on his site, and I can definitely recommend Sticky Wicket as a good place to start, although there’s a new single out soon too. Sticky Wicket is a much more straight-up pop record than I would have expected, and although at times you may find some of the eccentricities a little odd, that will fade and you will left with a really good record. Well it’s taken me a little time, but I’ve got there eventually.

Gummi Bako – Underground
Gummi Bako – She’s the Carrot
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