My Goodness, McGuiness! - Insular Peninsular

2011 release

My Goodness, McGuiness! are connected to an older tradition, of which Bartók himself was enthusiastically a part, and which was best expressed in the jazz idiom by Gil Evans. It is the artist as ethnographer, equipped with education and knowledge but wanting to learn something new, opening their ears to the world and letting it sing to them.
 
The arrangements live up to this attitude in every way, from their openness and light melodic touch to the chosen instrumentation.
 
Insular Peninsular is the first recording from the group, and will be released through Rufus Records/Universal on May 201It features a mostly gentle instrumental landscape of blue-blood 1970s pop covers and original songs by leading man, Lucian McGuiness.
 
A trombone player, composer, and producer, McGuiness has performed with ensembles as varied as Joanna Newsom, the Mike Nock Project, King Tide, Steve Hunter's Nine Lives and the Orkestra of the Underground.
 
McGuiness positions this eclectic range of tunes as the raw material out of which he built his craft. It's not an empty, clever appropriation; it's something essential within musicianship.
 
My Goodness, McGuiness! began as a catharsis for Lucian, a way to process the tunes that he grew up with. With close collaborators in saxophonist Dan Junor, guitarist Aaron Flower and bassist Brendan Clarke – the group continue that theme. Using Fabian Hevia's and Giorgio Rojas’ simple percussion instead of the more bombastic sounds of the full kit allows more room for lyricism and balance.

‘The world doesn’t do blitheness any more. Pouting and grandstanding, yes, but the gentle art of carefree joy has faded. Yet Sydney’s My Goodness, McGuiness! Can be as blithe as bee in summer. Why, they even cover David Bowie’s Oh! You Pretty Things. Trombonist Lucien McGuiness’s own pieces mostly sustain the mood, as does the group texture...Like The catholics, they stop just short of overdosing you with jollity.’

John Shand Sydney Morning Herald

‘Energy levels rarely escalate, but the groove and melody are beautifully robust. There is an overarching pure squality to the McGuiness tone, coupled with a less—is—more approach, never overplaying.’ Four stars

Peter Wockner Limelight