antiMusic.com: Beninghove's Hangmen - Pineapples and Ashtrays Review

Beninghove's Hangmen - Pineapples and Ashtrays

by Kevin Wierzbicki

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Led by sax and keys man Bryan Beninghove, Beninghove's Hangmen specialize in jazzy-with-a-twist (or two!) instrumentals with all the musicianship and fun qualities of songs you might hear on a satellite radio Tropicalia channel. But there's a lot more to it than that and the Hangmen generally incorporate at least a couple different genres within each song. "Astronete," the album's Brazilian-flavored opener, for example, starts off as mellow as an Ipanema sunset but when the horn section kicks in the listener is blown straight into the classiest dance club in Rio. Beninghove sets his sax to "raunchy" for the opening of the title cut, but the song soon meanders from the cabaret to a brief country-inspired lull, then back to something Little Egypt could strip to, and with a little psychedelic, Grateful Dead-style jamming wedged in here and there. "Lola Gotta Gun" is dub-heavy reggae, "La Girafe" has a childlike circus appeal to it; accordingly it was inspired by Beninghove's time spent goofing around with his youngsters. The Hangmen don't forget to put a little funk in the mix too, "Roebuck" takes care of that, and "Elephant Stampede" covers the freak-out beat. Everything is original except for a slightly woozy take on Neil Diamond's "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon." With all the quirkiness here it would have been easy for Beninghove to slip into the cutesy zone but Pineapples and Ashtrays is about as cool as you can get all the way through.