Professor Penguin come from South London, and are one of the many excellent bands that happen to begin with P who I recently saw at Leefest (the others being Pengilly’s and Public Service Broadcasting in case you were wondering). I’ve no particular opinion on the letter P, it just turned out they were all good bands.
Anyway, Professor Penguin have a lovely little understated/underrated album called ‘Planes’ out already, primarily the work of singer-songwriter Jonny Abraham, who subsequently recruited the other members in order to play it all live. It’s full of wistful guitar-based tunes, though there are all sorts of other instruments and sounds garnishing the album, including an epic string-led instrumental intro to the track ‘Planes 2’.
At their shows they are a 9 piece, and the glorious melodies ever-present on the album are accentuated and added to by various orchestral instruments and meatier guitars, meaning their big sing-along choruses, perhaps only hinted at on record, really come alive in concert. If you’ve only got a little bit of time, then perhaps it’d be best to check out ‘Pilot,’ which you can download from the widget below.
However, if you have a bit longer you most definitely won’t regret listening to their other tracks, because I kept changing my mind about which one track to check out just then, so by the time you read this perhaps I’ll like ‘Power Plants,’ or ‘Pilot’ most and thus think they’re the best to check out first. Brian Eno likes them and so should you.
STREAM: Pilot by Professor Penguin
STREAM: Power Plants by Professor Penguin
More details on Professor Penguin at their Facebook page. They play Ronnie Scott's in London on Tuesday (6th) evening.
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