If I handed you an album and described it as “Decemberists meet Tom Waits meet Beirut meet Leonard Cohen”…you’d be impressed, yes? Well I would be. These are the words chosen to describe Brooklyn Singer/songwriter / Multi-instrumentalist, Robin Aigner’s latest release, Bandito. Incidentally, that description is not a journalistic throw away comment either as the album lives up to it in every sense.
Robin has been a regular on the NYC anti-folk scene for some time and first appeared on Folk Radio UK under the guise of ‘Royal Pine’. Not that I would compare the two albums as they are very different. I was re-introduced to Robin through Curtis Eller after seeing they were sharing the same bill awhile back.
Bandito is Robin Aigner’s fourth self-produced album of original material on which she draws musical influence from Easter Europe, old-time and Americana. Robin draws us into an incredibly nostalgic world and spins some fine tales as well as taking us back through history. The ‘Great Molasses Disaster’ is set in 1919 and tells a tale of Ellis Islands earliest immigrants. It’s not just the tales she spins that make her such an endearing performer. She has a voice that has a timeless quality that brings those stories to life. Despite never seeing her perform live I would bet that what she is able to create on CD easily transforms into a great stage presence.
Mediocre Busker
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