Bouffon! JP Oldfield’s Debut EP in Review

Once the demonic entity Spring-Heeled Jack entered folklore it became subject to many books and plays, diluting the once real threat of this Victorian bogeyman into a mockery of mass hysteria and hoaxes. If our local upcoming blues soloist JP Oldfield is resurrecting the legend as an opening to his forthcoming debut EP, Bouffon, the track’s haunting ambience is broken by the usage of his kazoo, implementing the very vaudeville element of satire the album’s title reflects….

Bouffon, being a French theatrical term for a performance of mockery, much like a jester becomes subtly apt once you’ve listened, but there’s deeper prose at work. “I threw a lot of names around in my head for this project but nothing seemed to fit,” Josh told me, “I wanted a name that summed up everything that these songs, my style, stood for. As such Bouffon, I think, is an unexpected title for my debut EP but I’ve never really seemed to  like following the mould with any of this musical stuff and despite at first I rejected the idea, it sat in the back of my mind and wouldn’t go away.”

In a town where blues is taken extremely seriously my initial reaction to this EP was “there he goes again, blowing that kazoo when traditionally there should be a harmonica!” But it soon dawned on me, this, and his beaten up suitcase pedal-drum looking like a juke joint throwout, is all part of the unique and idiosyncratic approach JP Oldfield has forged, and its originality works wonders.  

If there’s one notable eccentric kazoo-blowing duo on the local circuit it’s Devil’s Doorbell, who Josh supported at Chippenham’s Old Road Tavern. But whereas those crazy boaters with ukulele and washtub bass rely solely on the jaunty and jocular, there’s a much deeper tenet to JP Oldfield, richly layered, psychologically.

“To me a Bouffon clown holds a mirror up to the audience,” Josh explained, “at times it can be hard to look at, deeply sad, and presents you with things you’d rather not face, but in the end it doesn’t pull its punches, and allows for anything to be possible, a blank space where you’re truly free to explore. I really resonate with the idea of this. I’ve always enjoyed the strange, quirky and unlovable. Elements of this have bled far enough into my music to feel a need to name my debut after it.”

The second tune asks this directly, if the singer has the blues, as if the melancholic disposition of blues is an affliction the doctor can diagnose. But three tunes in and we’re blessed with such melancholy, Last Orders is a gorgeous ballad to vainly justifying alcoholism. Magpie which follows delves much deeper in its narrative.

“A lot of people associate me with lively suitcase drum playing, jazz chord kazoo mania,” Josh expressed, “and I get it, but that’s not the only side to my music and I would be doing myself a disservice if that was all that I recorded. All my songs are dark but sometimes it needs to bubble up fully to the surface and see the light of day.”

He examples the two as those which ‘really fill out the point of the recordings.’ “Last Orders is a deep dive into my previous alcohol abuse and really aims to look behind the curtain on the inner workings of a lonely alcoholic. Magpie is a story told from the point of view of a child whose parents have just lost a baby and the confusion that comes from that as the parent’s attempt to hide and dress up the truth. It was actually written in half an hour, the afternoon before hitting the studio, when I put it down on tape it was only the fifth time I ever played it. I had the lyric sheet in front of me and sat real close to the microphone. We did it in one take, the studio went silent and we all seemed to be in agreement that despite it not being perfect, it was exactly the take we needed for that song.”

I suggest, in its rawness, Magpie is the most emotionally driven track on the album, the song an audience will take away with them. Though achieving the balance is key here. When we first met for an interview, the topic rested mainly on his powerful basso vocal range, likening him to Cash or Leonard Cohen, and while Josh should pursue this angle in his recording, his live show wouldn’t be the same without the more kazoo blowing mockery of his macabre topics. For the finale Josh pulls in all resources. By title and topic, Satan’s Bar one could imagine we’re off in a similar style as Last Orders and Magpie, but no, mate, it’s jump blues and off he goes with that kazoo again! I suppose, solving the dilemma on how to go out, Satan’s Bar has both sides to JP Oldfield covered nicely. 

If I tend to relate baritones to Jim Morrison, and his ability to induce his crowd hypnotically, (taking into account their probable intoxication!), one can suggest JP Oldfield has a similar commanding voice, and that’s a high compliment, but deserved on the strength of this EP alone.

Oliver Stone projected this well in his 1991 biopic, though those who knew Morrison criticised his persona as deeper layered than that which was represented. They claimed while Morrison was the unbalanced and sometimes vexatious character portrayed, that Stone missed his more playful and humorous side. Josh undoubtedly has the capacity and skill to mesmerise a crowd, like Riders on the Storm, yet if those middle tracks on the EP proves this, the beginning and end ones suggest his favourite Doors track might be the more gamesome Alabama Song, showing Morrison to the way to the next whiskey bar.

Bouffon is released on 25th February 2025, it certainly won’t disappoint his live fans. With this original balance of melancholic delta blues with a sense of vaudeville satire, there’s deep personal reflection versus folklore and contemporary narrative, all encompassing and blended superbly. 

When I first heard Josh perform, I figured this needed the kind of guided hand only the legend Nick Beere at Mooncalf Studios could master. Coincidentally I bumped into him the weekend after Josh sent the album, and Nick not only confirmed he had recorded it, but agreed the kazoo and all JP Olfield’s gubbings were all part of the uniqueness of the act. 

“Nick’s not only very knowledgeable but also a great guy,” Josh finished on. “We’d met a couple of times before, at open mics, and he already had a fairly good idea of what I sounded like. I left the production side completely in his hands, he’s the master, I just make the sound. It was the first time Nick had ever recorded a kazoo and a suitcase so I was happy to be the first!”

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