Table Manners

Round Trip Mars is pleased as proverbial punch to present the release of the long awaited, and not in the slightest bit exaggerated, dayboo album 'Table Manners' from Jefferson Belt.

These 16 prime slices of stereo silliness and all-round instrumental good times have been hand picked to present the widescreen wonder of the Belt beat in all its glory.

Back in that strange and mystical time that was the late 80s / early 90s, Jefferson Belt first surfaced on the Auckland music scene as axe spanker for the theatrical spaz rock monstrosity that was Sperm Bank 5. This was followed by various superbly monikered musical incarnations like Brown Tricycle, Nurse Hat and the significance laden Fragrant Moose. However, with an obsessive-compulsive naming disorder this simply wasn't enough for Jeff, and given a chance to vent his long held eclectronic sensibilities he was soon strutting around solo style and fashion. On the wrong side of the musical tracks, as Plasticjunk ('Man From Atlantis', 'Pirate Dub' and 'King Prawn' on the Kog 'Dub Combinations' series) and 'Superfoot (with the totally tonally tremendous 'Tough In The Sky' for Sideways Too on Round Trip Mars). Tom Middleton, of Global Communications and worldwide DJ fame, was so mightily taken aback when he heard a Plasticjunk track on bFM while visiting NZ, that he demanded the inclusion of 'It's My Duty' on his 'Sound Of The Cosmos' compilation alongside the likes of Roots Manuva, New Order and Groove Armada.

There's more than a doff of the cap to the classic era of library music in these vibrant vignettes and that's something that has been carried on through the sublime artwork featuring a picture of the Table Tennis great Marty Reisman. Little did we know when we requested the use of Mr Reisman's iconic self-portrait that the 76 year old TT titan himself would be requisitioning copies of the album to send around to the various Table Tennis museums of the world, but we know a niche market when we see one! Described by the Washington Post as 'an incomparable table tennis exhibitionist, quipster, actor, artist, for 25 years the most charismatic player in this country' Marty Reisman sounds like a Round Trip Mars kind of guy, no wonder they're making a feature film about him!

Offering a complete course in EQ etiquette you'll know exactly what to do with your spork after a solid dose of the robotic rhythms of 'Curse This Metal Body, the stereophonic sugar rush of 'Micro Bon Bons', the g-spot geography of 'Sexual Hillforms' or the truly trippy tones of 'The Tunnel'. These 16 prime slices of stereo silliness and all-round instrumental good times have been hand picked to present the widescreen wonder of the Belt beat in all its glory. We wouldn't want to be branding the beautiful noise that Mr Belt makes as cinematic because that's just played out these days, but it's hard to deny the top scoring, futuro-nostalgic soundtrack-esque sizzle of the whole fandangle. From the loose-limbed lounge of 'Where's He At' (currently resident in the Median Strip Alt Top 5 and literally soaking up the b-Net airplay love) to the dusty vintage skank of 'The Green Termite' or the mind-blowing mental pictures suggested by the Ringsodelic rock 'n' squelch of 'Hobbits On Acid', it's gargantuan good times for one and all, young and old.

As ever on RTM it's quite unlike anything else out there (especially from NZ) and gloriously so. We've tried long and hard to sum all this up in one power-packed sentence but it was too hard, so can we just say it pings and it pongs and it's bursting at the seams with genius grooves and smashing songs.