Orkestra Del Sol's Top Trumps

Orkestra Del Sol, the gypsy-jazz brass band that have consistently been cited among the Fringe's musical highlights over the last few years, return to a packed-out Spiegeltent. This is a group who wear their influences on their sleeves, be they Eastern European, New Orlean or Latin American.

Moreover, this incredible musicality is combined with a genuine sense of fun. This year, the group play around with a Top Trumps theme, where the band members compete with each other across a range of increasingly daft attributes. 

If the theme is contrived with minimal real impact on the show as a whole, that doesn't matter at all. Top Trumps is just good, simple fun. Great fun in fact. Indeed, it seems such a rarity these days to see dancing at a gig that when it immediately and spontaneously breaks out at the beginning of the show I'm a little uncomfortable. Five minutes later I'm breaking out my finest dad-dancing along with everyone else.

If there's one criticism it's that this show is on much too early in the day. Dancing the night away with this manic Orkestra seems a perfect ending to a Fringe evening. But kicking off at 7.15pm and ending an hour later, there's still light out and places to go. It's a minor criticism, of course, and one Orkestra Del Sol most likely have no control over, but it does change the ambiance and nature of the gig.

Otherwise, it's difficult to recommend this highly enough.