Joe Mcphee / Charlie Mcphee / Graham Lambkin / Oliver Lambkin - Live In The Batcave LP

From Black Truffle... McPhee and Lambkin have been pals for years after meeting in a Poughkeepsie shop in upstate New York, where McPhee lives, and they’ve crossed paths many times since, both in person and on record via Lambkin’s defunct Kye Records. In 2017 Lambkin brought his son, Oliver, down to the basement of Joe’s brother, Charlie and they recorded this typically candid document of the evening, capturing the sound of four guys getting increasingly half-cut, singing along to soul records, drumming on everything in sight, and generally having good craic in Charlie’s “Batcave.”

Edited into captivating windows by Lambkin the elder, it all feels just like we got an invite, given a half pint of whiskey, and told to shut up and sit quietly in the corner if we wanted to stay. Fine by us. Mind if we smoke? It’s worth sticking around for when it all comes together in the final part, various voices rising together with offbeat claps in sozzled, familial harmony.

"Our music was born from the sounds of jazz, funk, soul, noise -- sounds with no other reason so exist, except because they did, sounds which occurred like putting one step in front of the other to see if the way was clear to take the next step. The plan was, there is no plan, just start at the beginning, end at the end and party like it's 1999" --Joe McPhee.”