TENDERLY / DREAMBOAT by NOAH LEWIS' MAHLON TAITS WITH TOMOKO KANDA

The new single from Noahlewis' Mahlon Taits, a Tokyo group featuring accordion, musical saw and sax along with guitar, bass and drums.Their irony-free, joyously melodic, timelessly past-ever-present music has, until now, been instrumental, so they have risen to the challenge of vocal music with this release, bringing in respected singer Tomoko Kanda to sing these two songs, with the band providing vocal support. The A-side is a cover of the 1946 standard "Tenderly", a very pure, loving and snark-free visioning of the song, highlighted by a musical saw and spoken-vocal interlude and some sweet accordion comping. The B-side "Dreamboat" is no mere afterthought; an original by the band, with Japanese lyrics and a languidly flowing, very alive presence, a new song but not at all out of place in the company of the flipside classic. The old and the new are one, with Noahlewis'Mahlon Taits.