Ishmael - Revived

Published Saturday 13th September 2008
Ishmael - Revived
Ishmael - Revived

STYLE: Rock
RATING 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
OUR PRODUCT CODE: 45987-11194
LABEL: Glorie Music
FORMAT: CD Album
ITEMS: 1

Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

These days when it comes to Ishmael's music, most people think of the long list of children's projects and the seemingly endless years of effective ministry that has helped a few generations of British kids to learn to engage with God through worship. For those with longer teeth, we remember Ishmael as the leader of punk bands like Rev Counta & The Speedoze or Ishmael United. Always more Sham 69 than Sex Pistols, Ish had a knack for a snappy lyric and a three chord bash and now he revisits his old songs, re-recording them with a young abrasive band backing him. The effect is fab and that's not just my personal nostalgia kicking in! He always wrote with a tongue-in-cheek and his humour comes through on the wonderful irony of "Star On Sunday" and the fast paced "Glub Glub". His humour was also powerful when it came to defusing some of the spiritual tension of those days so "I Am Just A Charismatic" was a fun way of dealing with the evangelical/charismatic divide about the baptism in the Spirit. Songs like "We Are In God's Army", "Little Troopers" and "Little Lamb" straddle the divide between his children's work and punk albums. Songs like "Crowd Trouble" and "Bartimaus" are absolute classics and the album contains a nicely rocky version of Ishmael's big worship hit, "Father God I Wonder". 2008 has seen him battling with leukaemia so my prayer is that the title of this album is prophetic and that soon I'll be able to see this band in a live setting thrashing through this material.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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Reader Comments

Posted by Timbo Smale in Rustington @ 23:29 on Sep 15 2008

Thanks Mike for a great review. I'm Ishmael's brother and had the privilege to play bass on this cd with some very talented young musicians.
We appreciate your best wishes for Ish, I know it's peoples prayers that have helped him through the difficult times this year. The band played a gig at 'Spring Harvest' to launch the album earlier this year but sadly had to perform without Ish as he had only be diagnosed with leukaemia a week before the gig.
We hope to be rockin' live around the country with Ish in 2009.
Thanks again for all the encouragement, it means a lot!


Reply by Mike Sands in Rochdale @ 00:56 on Oct 16 2016

Just for the record Bartimaus is actually a song written by Rev Mike Huck's band MOVEMENT FAMILY I should know I was there at the original practice sessions, when after a lot of writing and re writing the final lyrics were finally set in stone.

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