Jonquil - 'Point Of Go' (Blessing Force)

When I last saw Jonquil in May 2010, they were on just before Foals at Bristol's Anson Rooms and they were incredible. Loads of energy on stage and, it's all a bit hazy, but i'm sure they have a kind of tropical sound going on. Then I think one of them came out and hit drums during Foals' set. Great night.

Oxford has such a good pedigree for music, from band like Radiohead (technically nearby Abingdon), Ride and Supergrass in the 90's to the slightly less well known but equally impressive Youthmovies, Foals, Young Knives, Stornaway, Trophy Wife and Chad Valley and Pet Moon. The recent surge is thanks in part to the oraganisation/community calling itself 'Blessing Force' (such an awesome name) and it's Blessing Force who put out this album from Jonquil - see an explanation for what BF is on the BBC website Couple these amazing bands with Oxford based festivals OX4 and Truck as well as labels such as Big Scary Monsters and the now 99% defunct Vacuous Pop and you'll see that this is a town with a prolific musical output.

Enough with the geo-musico lesson...

Jonquil - 'Point Of Go'

THE ARTWORK

I only ever select artists to feature here that have put thought in to their artwork. After all, this is meant to be a celebration of the blood sweat and tears behind making that all important cover art...

It's people, in water next to a cliff. Look closer and you'll see that it's a mixture races all carefully represented - one can only guess at the link between the album title and this image.But that's the fun part! Trying to work out what the artist had in mind and what he'd aiming to portray through this artwork. Given that Blessing Force is an art collective as well as a musical one, you expect it to be good.So what does it mean? We're all drowning slowly in this modern, multi-cultural British society? Birds of a feather swim together? It certainly gives a sense of oppression and containment. The contrasting blue of the sea and the pink of the cliffs then gives it a dream like quality. Most of the people seem to be heading towards the shore. This is one of those ones where I hope someone at Blessing Force or Jonquil reads this and tells me what it stands for. I'm intrigued!

**UPDATE**
This artwork was created by the very talented Sebastian Thomas and you can see more of his amazing work and paper collages at http://sebastianthomas.tumblr.com/

THE MUSIC

We're very lucky on this occasion as they kindly have it streaming for free on Soundcloud!

In summary it's vibrant and upbeat and brilliant. It speaks of summer and being alive - far removed from early mentions of music made in the basement of The House Of Supreme Mathematics AKA Foals HQ. soulful yet with enough staccato oomph to make your feet twitch while your heart soars.

For a full review of the music, visit the excellent BBC Reviews page for this album.