TFS Records

Reviews

Antique Seeking Nuns

Mild Profundities (an initial bursting)

Alan Clayson - Record Collector No.281
The most succinct description of the opener to this five-track EP, ‘It’s Pissing-Don’, is that it sounds how Frank Zappa might have arranged Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Albatross’ -
with a funny time signature and, rather than a lead guitar, a vibraphone. The mother Superior leaves his mark else where too, notably on ‘Keeny Woka Phoola’.
Yet ‘M.O.D.A.R’ and ‘Little Machines’ (which is hinged on an androdgynous vocal), have more to do with Throbbing Gristle, ClockDVA and other 80s industrialists.
Yet, for all the influences, obvious and subtle, there’s a lively imagination at work here.
 

Double Egg with Chips and Beans and a Tea

ProgressiveEars.com
Ah, what it is to a be British prog rock group with a sense of humour… not that I know personally what it feels like, but Antique Seeking Nuns seem to be enjoying themselves immensely. And so they well might because this a real gem of a CD EP that I only came across purely by chance when The Nuns (as I like to affectionately call them) put in a friend request to me on MySpace.
They’re a four-piece from the UK, consisting of Matt Baber (assorted keyboards), Paul Mallyon (drums), Brad Waissman (bass), and Joff Winks (guitars/vocals), who realised they were never going to be Pink Floyd (they were about 35 years too late, unfortunately) and were disgusted to find that the “punk as f**k but actually prog when no one’s looking” mantle they were so desperately hoping to capitalise on had already been taken by another band from the same general local area a few years before, namely Radiohead. As the band admit, those were dire times indeed, but since then they seem to have recovered and have gone on to produce two EPs (this is the second; I’ve yet to hear the first). On the evidence of this one, dare I say that they have as much promise and potential as that displayed by the early recordings by both Pink Floyd and Radiohead.
The band’s name comes from a story told by Matt’s girlfriend who was educated at a convent school and was shocked one night to discover several highly respectable nuns heaving valuable religious artefacts into the back of a Ford Transit for reasons that were never established. The band’s name therefore is said to honour this mysterious group of “Antique Seeking Nuns”. And the title of the EP apparently comes from the band inadvertently discovering the meaning of life in a local cafe, an experience documented in the song “Double Egg”.
So there you go… but what about the music? Well we have only four tracks here so it’s a little tricky to describe the sound of The Nuns, but the band themselves have had a go: “Frank Zappa and Donald Fagan judging a talent contest between Tortoise and Gentle Giant…with Robert Wyatt doing the commentary.” And it has to be said that that’s not at all a bad description. It’s definitely prog rock, with quite a bit of the Canterbury sound and jazz fusion thrown in for good measure.
The aforementioned first track, “Double Egg”, which tells us of the happiness-producing properties of two fried eggs with chips, beans and a tea, starts off sounding like the Jimi Hendrix Experience for the opening 30 seconds but rapidly turns into something more like National Health or Hatfield and the North – it”s delightfully tuneful but neatly experimental too.
“Son of Cheese” is a slightly more jazz-fusiony story that tells us of the band members’ fears of being stuck on a desert island with cheese as their only food source… okay, don’t ask, but just sit back and enjoy those wonderful vintage-keyboard sounds. This is a very keyboard-heavy track and it reminds me greatly of Chick Corea, Mahavishnu Orchestra, etc. though with a strong dash of humour in those cheese-related lyrics.
“Son of Bassoon” represents a surprising change of pace, a rather beautiful solo piano instrumental piece, which lacks the food-related vocals/lyrics of the two previous tracks, instead very wisely playing it straight. It’s a remarkably pretty and charming little number, though amazingly it doesn’t sound the least bit out of place on the EP.
And then we’re at the final number, “Shatner’s Bassoon”, which is apparently about the bit of the brain that deals with time perception (the basal ganglia and the right parietal cortex, I believe). It’s an instrumental that reminds me very much of Gentle Giant mixed with a very healthy dose of Frank Zappa, and there’s a lot of great stuff going on here, including some fantastic guitar work towards the end (get those air guitars at the ready… you have been warned!).
And then, sadly, that’s the end of the EP. It’s wonderful to be able to say that the biggest problem I have with this CD is that it’s too short and I eagerly look forward to hearing what The Nuns might achieve on a full-length album.
My other slight criticism is that there’s a lot of borrowing of styles from the likes of Zappa, Gentle Giant, Chick Corea, National Health, etc. and it would be nice to hear The Nuns expand and develop their own unique style more. There’s certainly lots of originality, invention and charm on display here, but again I think there’d be room for further development on a full album.
But in a sense I’m nit-picking here: this is a bright, witty, warm, and hugely entertaining release from a band not afraid to show off their dangerously unfashionable 1970s influences, but with enough compositional flair, musicianship and panache of their own, combined all-importantly with a rare sense of humour, to produce something new and interesting for the 21st Century. A truly delightful EP, which you can and indeed should pick up (along with its predecessor) at www.freakemporium.com or at www.cdbaby.com. Don’t wait… this is well-worth hearing before you get your next dose of double egg, chips, beans and a tea.
Best tracks: Well, all of them, I guess… “Double Egg”, “Son Of Cheese”, “Son Of Bassoon”, “Shatner’s Bassoon”.

Joff Winks Band

Songs for Days

Oxford Nightshift Magazine
Its a moody rainy day. A day I could do with winning the lottery. I am as grumpy as a squirrel with a nut allergy,and I manage to badly stub my unshod toe heading to the mail shute, where amongst the bills and demands I find my review copy of this album. So it’s hit the sofa with a bumper mug of java and press play, things can’t get any worse.
A piano leads a drum roll in a sense that a curtain is opening to reveal a summery, off- kilter Britain transported to a Disney park as run by David Lynch, a floaty place you’d never ever stub your toe and Lemon Jelly probably painted the scenery.
At its best ‘Songs For Days’ is a giddy mushroom of complex jazz-influenced structures and harmonies woven with literate but sometimes obscure or ambiguous lyrics, as if you were sharing a beach house with Turin Brakes and Donald Fagan, and Jagu Jazzist had popped over for a game of hackysack. ‘Milo’ and ‘Before We Bow Down’ are typical of the scintillating and grown-up heights The Joff Winks Band can reach, and let’s face it, any band that can deliver Steely Dan chops with such slippery ease is a band to be respected.
‘Cast Adrift’ is a dreamy lament on the loss of innocence, and throughout the whole album
there are touches of nostalgia amongst the Pink Floyd-like experimentation: samples of a BBC1 ident, primary school kids in a playground, and even the bass player noodling over the sound of dawdling Sunday drivers, all hint at home thoughts from some exile on a lonely planet. If the happy pills wear off a little during ‘Hedonic Treadmill’ and ‘Ace Train’, and worse, during an unnecessary revisit to a song called ‘Revisited Song’, which is in itself about revisiting a song, then it’s all brought back to a sunshine ending in ‘Morning Sun’, a song so aglow you need to put on Ambre Solaire.
‘Songs For Days’ shows that even with a lazy day vibe you can still challenge and thought provoke, and while I may not have won the lottery, I’m still left with that bright feeling you get when you manage to get three numbers.
Paul Carrera

Subba Cultcha
A thoroughly impressive DIY release from the winners of Zane Lowe’s Fresh Meat battle of the bands competition, drawing on influences as varied as Neil Young, an old Mahavishnu orchestra, and death phobias.

Joff Winks is one of those rare creatures; a singer-songwriter who actually acknowledges the existence of his band in the name. This puts him in the same basket as Mr Hudson in the library, and like the aforementioned band, Joff Winks marries a pretty unique mix of styles: jazz, English folk, American rock (think something like the Fray but less obviously contrived), and intelligent lyricism. Using narrative as the structure for tracks instead of your average love-related Coldplay fare, Joff Winks has set himself and his band apart from others you might be tempted to write them off as sound-a-likes to. It’s true the album at times shares a kind of sound with Messrs Martin and Blunt, but only in the same way that Bagpuss is like Top Cat because he’s a cat.

‘Songs for Days’ occasionally also strays into the territory of prog, demonstrating both the bands creative range, and the freedom their DIY existence offers, but this only intensifies feelings of admiration and wonder I felt at how I’d somehow already heard of the band, who have only released on their own label, and had scant promotion on XFM, BBC 6 music and Zane Lowe’s Fresh Meat battle of the bands competition (they won). Having toured with luminaries like Ray LaMontagne, Regina Spektor, and The earlies, I suppose this is hardly surprising.

The album’s reflections on childhood are complemented perfectly by the innocence of Winks’ voice, perhaps at its best on ‘Cast Adrift’ - a song considering the changing of kids TV. Somehow, this combination avoids sounding twee, probably through the mix of maturity with childhood reflection. After all, the interludes at the end of some tracks break up the flow of reminiscences and hint at something a bit darker, a bit more ‘now’ or futuristic, lurking in the background. Listening to the album, I started to experience the same feelings of excitement as when I discovered The Veils’ second album last year, but Joff Winks is an even more exciting prospect if you get in on the ground floor now before they sign a megabucks label deal.
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Entertainment Manchester
Joff Winks is one of the most unusual names we’ve ever heard of, but we sure do like his band. Songs For Days is a delightful record that refuses to sit comfortably in any particular genre but sounds very good in its own way.
Having supported the likes of Ray Lamontagne and Regina Spektor, you know that they are going to be the kind of act who plow their own furrow and this debut album confirms that. On the surface of it, Joff Winks Band are a fairly straightforward melodic guitar rock band, but the instrumentation on Songs For Days is often very quirky, giving most of the songs a lot of depth that is only really appreciated on repeat listenings. Fortunately, the song-writing is so immediate that repeat listenings won’t be a problem for most who dip their toes into the water, with Revisited Song (appropriately) and the wonderful Cast Adrift amongst the early highlights.
Winks and Co are clearly well-schooled in classic rock music too, with Someone Else’s Words referencing Neil Young while closing track Morning Sun is all about kids trying to watch Pink Floyd At Pompeii during their school lunchbreak.
Joff Winks Band aren’t up there in that lofty company just yet, but Song For Days is an excellent debut album so who knows where they can go from here? Well worth checking out.

Music Manchester
23 July 2007 / JWB Records / 13 Trk CD + Download

Reading through the MM archive, it seems that Winks and Co’s last single caused a bit of consternation in the MOR Versus Rock stakes. In fact “Share My Blues” isn’t featured on this album. “Songs For Days” is an intelligent album littered with light melodies and a pleasing degree of twisting semi-prog arrangements. The pure, carefully jangled guitars are set within a frame of piano, keyboards and inventive drum beats, but it is of course the voice of the Oxford quartets band leader, Joff himself, that adds the final convincing stroke. “Before We Bow Down” is an impressive, ambling slice of extended wigged out melody. Joff Winks Band are more melancholy but no less complex or engaging than bands like Mute Math and other complex indie rock projects. A rewarding album that’s well worth repeated dips into its rich selection of carefully constructed songs.

MusicNews.com
Sometimes popular music falls into the trap of being ‘generic’, for the Joff Winks Band, their mission is to buck the trend of formulaic music and come up with something exciting and original.
As debuts go, Songs for Days, offers a progression in mood as each track passes by, from the sublime ‘Before We Bow Down’ to the more upbeat ‘Someone Else’s Words’. Each instrument has its own twists and turns, not letting things get stale or repetitive, but keeping enough structure to lead the ear through effortlessly.
An ear-catching interlude, the peaceful ‘It Grows In Me Garden’, is a perfect accompaniment to sitting in the precious British summer sun and watching time pass by.
The sound of the JWB could be easily likened to Travis or American long-lost acousto-rockers Matchbox Twenty, with Winks himself being influenced by the likes of rock legends Neil Young and Bob Dylan from an early age.
Hailing from Oxford, the four-piece have already come far, winning Zane Lowe’s Fresh Meat battle of the bands contest and been featured on BBC6 Music. It’s only a matter of time before the band makes their own mark in music.

Wisperin & Hollerin
Our Rating: 8 Stars
“Clever-clever jazz influenced cheery indie pop music”.
Should all those words ever be contained in the same sentence? Not according to the rules of the Universe. The same applies to “Czechoslovakian jazz influenced Eastern European Pop”. Shudder. But like most rules, they exist to be broken sometimes.
Oxford-based JOFF WINKS BAND have bravely challenged these rules, by combining the chin-stroking jazziness of Steely Dan (and I don’t care what anyone says, ‘Reeling in the Years’ is still one of the best songs of all time), with prog rock, splashes of acid jazz, and a genuine pop sensibility. i.e. their music is clever but accessible, relaxing not wanky, interesting and surprisingly catchy, not boring and OTT.
Sophisticated smooth bass lines underpin flowing chilled out electric piano and mildly schizophrenical guitar playing. The convoluted musical arrangements have an experimental vibe reminiscent of Joni Mitchel’s “Hissing of the Summer Lawns” era. But there are times when their music wanders into the realm of Frank Zappa (a sedated Zappa at least), with the weird zigzagging of melodies and occasional atonal clashing. We’re even treated to a Brad Mehldau-influenced piano arrangement which is quite a beautiful. I hear it, and I say “nice” as I stroke my chin and nod solemnly.
To date, the Joff Winks Band have played with the new wave of off-the-wall artists such as Regina Spektor, Ray LaMontagne (ok, not so off-the-wall), and The Earlies, and they sit very nicely alongside such performers.
Other bands, notably Field Music, have tried to capture the experimental ambience by breaking away from the current rock cliché’s (a-la Snow Patrol/Coldplay/The Killers, ad nauseum), but Joff Winks & Co have coined this particular sound more so than their contemporaries.
“Songs for Days” is a classy, ambient and beautifully crafted album, perfect for listening to on a summers day with a chilled glass of Chablis. Chin strokers of the world unite…
author: Sian Claire Owen

Rock City, July 2007
Joff Winks band are the former winners of Zane Lowe’s ‘fresh meat’ battle of the bands competition. Yet the band are certainly not at the cutting edge of guitar music like you might imagine. On the bands website Winks talks about the debut album, saying “the record is about tying together the need for straight ahead songwriting with the desire never to forsake musically interesting writing.” And for once this isn’t merely a public relations exercise in talking up the album. The band are prepared to experiment with a jazzy tinged sound, skewed time signatures and some sonic effects on tracks such as ‘Before We Bow Down’ and ‘Cast Adrift.’
There’s an epic sense of storytelling on tracks such as ‘Ace Train’ and ‘Juniper’ and these tracks would fit snugly into almost any scene from the Cameron Crowe movie ‘Almost Famous’. The album draws from late 60’s early 70’s, and it’s easy to spot the influence of ‘Lynyrd Skynyrd’, although at the same time the narrative may occasionally make you draw comparisons to Marillion circa the early 80’s.
racks are timeless, with the former single ‘Someone Else’s Words’ an ambitious and finely crafted slice of rock, with playfully strong melodies, that twist and turn, suddenly changing direction without any warning. You feel that Joff Winks have effortlessly created a modern music masterpiece that constantly glances over its shoulder allowing the influence of timeless artists such as Neil Young to keep them in check. When you consider that this is a DIY release from the Oxford based 4 piece; it makes the listening experience all the more special and intimate.
Greg Thomas

ProgressiveEars.com, July 2007
In 2006 I was overjoyed to discover a young UK band called Antique Seeking Nuns who released one of the finest CDs of that year in the form of the Double Egg With Chips and Beans (and a Tea) EP. I was a little bit surprised to find that ASN was in fact a spin-off project from another group, Joff Winks Band (I want to put an apostrophe after the “k” but there’s never one in any of the promotional material so I’d better leave it out) and so I was curious to find out how different the two bands were and whether I would like JWB as much as I do ASN.
And it just so happens that I do. The line-up of the two bands is exactly the same, but just to remind you, that’s Joff Winks (guitar and vocals), Matt Baber (keys), Brad Waissman (Bass) and Paul Mallyon (Drums).
ASN were definitely promoted as a prog rock band, described in their promotional material as “Frank Zappa and Donald Fagan judging a talent contest between Tortoise and Gentle Giant…with Robert Wyatt doing the commentary” and described by me as “definitely prog rock, with quite a bit of the Canterbury sound and jazz fusion thrown in for good measure… borrowing styles from the likes of Zappa, Gentle Giant, Chick Corea, National Health”.
Joff Winks Band jettison many of those more overt influences and styles in favor of something quite different, so although they could still be described as a prog rock band, the influences are less straightforward and the comparisons with other bands less obvious. If anything they’ve developed that extra element of originality that I felt ASN, despite their immense talent, were slightly lacking.
The sound is perhaps less self-consciously prog and could be described as more accessible, more poppy, and more psychedelic too. And yet nevertheless JWB is not merely the commercial second-cousin of ASN – the arrangements are too intelligent, too quirky, too complex, and fundamentally too proggy for that kind of statement, whilst the instrumentation on the tracks combines jangly guitars, inventive drumming and 1970s keyboards, making Joff Winks Band just as much a part of the so-called “new prog” scene as say Facing New York or Secret Machines.
Those 70s keyboards and clever arrangements at times remind me of the ASN sound – hints of the jazzy Canterbury fusion of Hatfield and The North or National Health, for example, creep into tracks like “Before We Bow Down” and “Milo”. But if ASN are very much Zappa meets National Health then JWB are much harder to place. The best I can manage is a cross between the aforementioned jazzy rock, Scritti Politti, Mercury Rev, The Flaming Lips, and even Pink Floyd and Donovan at times. JWB combine the highly-polished pop, lush vocals, lyrical melody and sophisticated studio production of Scritti Politti with the psychedelic pop/rock of the other four artists.
There’s an air of immediacy and accessibility about the album – the combination of classy arrangements, soaring vocal harmonies, and melodic song-writing makes for a disc that you just want to keep playing again and again. But there’s a depth and intelligence to the music that belies its apparently straightforward accessibility, whilst songwriter Winks refuses to write conventional “boy meets girl” love songs, instead going for more unusual narratives, often with a dark undercurrent to them. So “Juniper” may sound lush and lovely, the ideal accompaniment to lyrics about kite flying, but in fact the song is about a boy for whom flying kites is not a mere childish pastime but something more morbid.
This is typical of an album that is full of delightful contradictions and charming excursions and refuses to sit still in conventional musical boxes. If you haven’t bought the EPs by Antique Seeking Nuns yet then I suggest you do so, but make sure you’ve got enough cash left over to get this debut album by Joff Winks Band because it’s even better still. Already there are signs that Joff Winks Band could have an amazing future ahead of them but they need your support so don’t forget to buy your copy.
Best tracks: “Before We Bow Down”, “Juniper”, “Milo”, “Hedonic Treadmill”, “Ace Train”, “Morning Sun”.

Music News.com, July 2007
Sometimes popular music falls into the trap of being ‘generic’, for the Joff Winks Band, their mission is to buck the trend of formulaic music and come up with something exciting and original.
As debuts go, Songs for Days, offers a progression in mood as each track passes by, from the sublime ‘Before We Bow Down’ to the more upbeat ‘Someone Else’s Words’. Each instrument has its own twists and turns, not letting things get stale or repetitive, but keeping enough structure to lead the ear through effortlessly.
An ear-catching interlude, the peaceful ‘It Grows In Me Garden’, is a perfect accompaniment to sitting in the precious British summer sun and watching time pass by.
The sound of the JWB could be easily likened to Travis or American long-lost acousto-rockers Matchbox Twenty, with Winks himself being influenced by the likes of rock legends Neil Young and Bob Dylan from an early age.
Hailing from Oxford, the four-piece have already come far, winning Zane Lowe’s Fresh Meat battle of the bands contest and been featured on BBC6 Music. It’s only a matter of time before the band makes their own mark in music.

Get Ready To Rock
With a name like Joff Winks it’s hard to know what to expect. But with stated influences such as Neil Young, Steely Dan, Frank Zappa and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, you know this is no novelty act.
And so it proves - Songs For The Day is a classy piece of pop/rock with definite nods to the Dan - but at the more commercial end of their spectrum. It’s one of those albums that grows - it doesn’t immediately grab you buy the balls, but there’s enough there to make you want to return.
And with each play it reveals previously unnoticed layers of sophistication below the excellent vocals, guitars and hooks.
It’s something of a throwback of an album, to those heady days when music wasn’t quite such a disposable commodity. As for the ‘days’ in question, who cares? Songs For The Day is a damn fine listen. So remember the name - Joff Winks - one to watch.
Review by Pete Whalley

Tastyfanzine.org.uk
This is certainly intriguing stuff, starting like an out -take from a 70’s Harmonia album. Then, straight into engaging balladry that boasts some delicate textures. With an Air-like middle eight, Revisited Song takes the listener nicely out of the day to day rock reference points and into Winks world. The songs are variations on a theme, those being the strange little life coincidences and occurrences that build a varied canon of potential song writing material. From instrumentals inspired by gardening (It Grows In Me Garden), through to childhood reminiscences in Morning Sun, this is an eminently listenable excursion in to the dark side of modern prog, previously tackled by Mew. It shouldn’t really work, according to the 5 tenets of rock. (Speak to me later about these) However, by the time Cast Adrift appears as cut 4 on the album, this listener was well and truly loving the mood. Milo rocks a little, gently though. Not too loudly. Overall, and without hesitation, I recommend this album as a tonic to this sodden summer. I swear the sun came out as Wink’s ode to gardening began.
John Kertland

X-posure Live

XFM.com
First coming to industry attention via an Xfm Unsigned slot, it’s fitting that we should continue our Joff Winks patronage with X-posure Live.
Hailing from Oxford and bringing more than a touch of his hometown’s dreaming spires and grandiosity to his music, Joff comes over like an particularly
English Jeff Buckley. The soaring, heartfelt ‘Juniper’ is a particular highlight.

View Live Gig Video

Share My Blues

The Mag, January 2006
Taking a more smokey direction than previous release, ‘Someone Else’s Words’, the fourth Joff Winks Band release ‘Share My Blues’ is penned in for release on 13th February.

The laid back pace allows the guitars to create a strong motif in both the verse and the chorus, with some delicate picking in the former and an unusual consonance in the latter, that completely changes to mood of the instrumentation.
It’s all very nice indeed and Joff’s vocal is as good as ever, confidently delivering the work-too-hard and get home late lyrics.
It’s clear that this music has the general appeal required to head towards a chart position, but it’s all derived from a credible talented band that can throw in something more interesting for the more discerning listener.

Someone Else’s Words

Rock City
The winners of Zane Lowe’s ‘fresh meat’ battle of the bands competition have changed their name from ‘ Joff Winks’ to ‘Joff Winks Band’! Third time lucky maybe!! Oh and they’ve released a new single too…
This is ambitious, grandiose, finely crafted pop, with playfully strong melodies, that twist and turn; just when you think you’ve got the song worked out it changes pace and direction. It’s effortlessly modern music but it glances over its shoulder at timeless greats such as Neil Young (who is referenced in the chorus!). Imagine if Doves had an out of body experience; it would probably sound like this…
Greg Thomas
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The Mag, October 2005
Having been told in no uncertain terms that his band needed a name, Joff Winks sat down with his fellow band members for what can only have been the shortest of interludes in order to come up with the moniker they have now adopted. However, before we criticise the Joff Winks Band for not dedicating enough time to the creative process, let’s give credit where it’s due…
‘Someone Else’s Words’ is a slice of creativity that couldn’t be further from their band naming experiences. Moments of wiry guitar led pop are mixed with piano chiming highs and stripped out acoustic lows. Vocals chew up the melody in the verse and soar in the chorus, while special mention goes out to the drummer, who not only captures the crest of the tidal wave, but pushes it even higher with legendary awareness of the direction the song has taken.
So the music’s good (have I made that clear?) The lyrics don’t disappoint either, with some angry issues disguised in a sugary artistic way that seem to deal with the issue of playing gigs with bands you don’t like, having to deal with the subsequent negative effect on your inspiration and then being saved by an altogether inspirational musical hero.
There’s only one song on this disc, but it’s a really good one and it’s got enough depth to suggest something special is going on for this band.
In fact, it’s so good that they don’t really need a ‘proper’ name.

Nunu world Music
Ploughing the fertile field of singer-songwriters with a band, Joff Winks joins the company of artists like Ryan Adams. Like Adams, there’s a significant retro feel to his music, heavily influenced by Neil Young. But unlike Ryan Adams, this song is uplifting. Joff Winks could be massive.

Wisperin & Hollerin, July 6 2005
The unfeasibly-named singer/ songwriter JOFF WINKS has been turning a few heads over the past twelve months or so. His first download single (”Juniper”) won a Zane Lowe Radio 1 Battle Of The Bands; his past single “New Streets” was out on Cub Sevens and co-incided with acclaimed shows with The Earlies and Regina Specktor and 2004 concluded with rapturously-received gigs in support of Ray La Montagne.

Not a bad rep to begin with, and new single “Someone Else’s Words” can only help Winks and co to capitalise further, because - put simply - it’s a belter. Yes, it’s very ’70s with its’ zig-zagging, swaggering riffs and does bring names like Steely Dan, Big Star and mid-70s Neil Young (roughly circa “On The Beach”s more upbeat moments) careering through the stratosphere, but the production is bright and NOW and Winks’ band prove they can both turn on the heat and cool off as and when required.

I’ve no idea if this indicative of Joff Winks Band as a rule, but I sincerely hope so. This rocks and is the epitome of way cool. And that’s not a bad start in anyone’s book.

ContactMusic.com, July 2005
A former proud devourer of Zane Lowe’s Fresh Meat competition on Radio 1, with help from former download only single ‘Juniper’, Joff builds on this and provides something tangible for new fans. This Neil Young spiked with bits of Stackridge and Steely Dan offering displays an impressive range from the musically effervescent backing band.

‘Someone Elses Words’ picks up and takes on an almost jazzy style, as personal integrity is both demonstrated and sung about. Joff recently regaled Joseph Arthur fans with charming live performances, as brick by brick he is building a reputation for himself and his friends who play with him.
David Adair