Reviews
Not-so-heavy metal
Felicity Rookes, Taranaki
Daily News, 30 Apr 2009.
Pop, rock, jazz - The Bing Turkby Ensemble can't decide which musical genre they
would like to be so they married the three.
"We call it quirky pop rock, I like to call it aluminium metal, because it's not
as heavy as heavy metal, and it has good malleability and ductility.
"We were a bit more poppy but we have got a bit rowdier and more energy and have
a good time," says the band's name sake Bing Turkby.
"There are four of us so there is drums bass guitar and sax.
"It's quite interesting to have the sax in there, it gives it kind of a rock band
feel but there is something a little different but not totally unusual."
The ensemble is bringing their brand of music to New Plymouth's Basement Bar on
Saturday night from 9pm.
The Bing Turkby Ensemble has been going for many years and has gone through a lot
of line-ups and members, but Turkby says that rubbish is behind them and they are
now quite a stable lot. "We are getting ourselves out and about a lot more," he
says. "The ensemble has been rolling along in the Manawatu and the new line-up is
ready to sally forth and grab the hearts and minds of the populace," Turkby says.
"We do our own original songs in the vein of classic rock sounds, with the odd wussy
ballad thrown in to break things up."
The band is based in Palmerston North and Saturday will mark their first time in
New Plymouth, despite living so close by.
"We have done Auckland, Wellington and that kind of thing and been down south but
haven't been to New Plymouth, for some reason, so we are really looking forward
to it."
But Turkby isn't just into music, he has branched out, doing cartoons and picture
books.
"There is other like, stuff, around to keep people interested," he says.
Joining his self-promoting campaign are the band's albums. The latest one, Are You
Ensembled? is available at Raw Records.
Turkby originally got into music while he was at university, teaching himself how
to play a number of instruments.
"It's just something I always thought would be cool to do and when I went to university
with a couple of mates, we didn't know how to play so we started a band to learn
how to play," Turkby says.
As a side project from that The Bing Turkby Ensemble took off.