finger-buster titled ‘Exceeding The Velocity Of Light’ and the intricately patterned ‘Albert’s Gyroscope’ are especially timeless and kaleidoscopic. Gary von Tersch


FABIENNE DELSOL On My Mind Damaged Goods CD www.damagedgoods.co.uk


An album of slightly melancholic Gaulish pop- psych with a sound so cutesy it makes Peppa Pig look like torture porn. Tweeness is turned up to 10 as wispy waifs of


songs drift by, insubstantial though sometimes beguiling. Fabienne Delsol’s third is slightly more psychedelic than previous releases though there’s no real departure from her earlier work. Fuzzy yet restrained guitar and retro organ


summon up a breezy summery sound but one laced with bittersweet introspection that’s sung so sweetly you almost miss the barbed edges. There are occasionally switches to the French language when it wants to shut you out of the conversation. The whole thing is a pleasant enough diversion


but nothing really particularly grabbed or moved me. Much like a giant dollop of treacle, it left me queasy and unsatisfied. Austin Matthews


THE DING-DONGS The Ding-Dongs Norton CD


www.myspace.com/officialdingdongs Hailing from Montreal, Mark Sultan and Bloodshot Bill – AKA The Ding-Dongs – make the kind of revved-up rockabilly that sounds like it came outta Sam


Phillips’ Sun Studio back in the ’50s. Actually recorded in more recent times in


Bloodshot Bill’s parents’ basement, the album has an authentic, lo-fi, garage band sound. And when they throw their influences into the melting pot, the result is part Eddie Cochran backed by The Tennessee Two mixed with a pinch of Buddy Holly, a dash of Barrence Whitfield and a soupçon of The Shakin’ Pyramids. Mixed together you’ve got


something approaching The Ding-Dongs’ unique take on rockabilly. Not every track on the album is a killer, and at


times the contrived Cochran-esque vocals wear a little thin, but if you’re searching for a shot of red hot rockabilly played with gusto, The Ding-Dongs will have you cutting a rug faster than you can say “a-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-wop-bam-boom!” John Blaney


STEPHANIE FINCH & THE COMPANY MEN Cry Tomorrow Belle Sound CD


www.myspace.com/stephaniefinchmusic It’s no big bombshell that Finch’s solo debut is a soulful retro-pop masterpiece given that she’s been the cardinal complement to her husband Chuck Prophet’s


musical universe for ages. In addition to Bay Area roots rocker Prophet,


who also produces, the Company comprises multi- instrumentalists Kelley Stoltz and Rusty Miller who evocatively conjure a Velvet Underground/Modern Lovers-influenced aural environment for Finch’s enthralling soprano vocals on a variety of material – from the impassioned pop of Charlie & Inez Foxx’s ‘Count The Days 1-2-3-4-5-6-7’ and Randy Newman’s wild, woolly and hitherto unrecorded ‘She’sThe One’ to the laid-back grunge of the Prophet/Alejandro Escovedo composition ‘Sensitive Boys’ as well as a host of subtle Finch co-authored efforts.


Favourites among the latter encompass the


melodically mellow rocker ‘Tina Goodbye’, the catchy swinger ‘Wandering Son’ and a psychedelic raver called ‘Don’t Back Out Now’. Gary von Tersch


THE GERRY ALVAREZ ORCHESTRA Omega Tea Time Ricochet Sound CD www.ricochetsound.com Alvarez is the former frontman of much-loved Canadian caveman garage act The Gruesomes. Twenty odd years since that band’s inception he’s back with a second solo album, Omega Tea Time. As is the case with many 40-something former


OUTTATHEGARAGE Screamin’ all the way to the zoo! ________________________________


LOS CHICOS We Sound Amazing But We Look Like Shit Dirty Water LP/CD www.dirtywaterrecords.co.uk


Sadly for them but happily for us, the hyperbolic title of their fourth LP is no joke. Los Chicos are a ramshackle revelation. An unknown entity to this reviewer


before catching them on a recent Spanish Rock Invasion triple bill, this six-man R&B outfit from Madrid is a blistering proposition live. That they’ve captured even a fraction of the sweat-stained energy level and sense of infectious, onstage fun here is astonishing. From rousing pub-rock chant-alongs with a garage twist (opener ‘A Band’, the soulful yet


gloriously dumb title track, ‘Brothers From Different Mothers’, ‘Join Our Family’) to storming country- punk barnstormers (‘I Bet I Win’, ‘I Wanna Tour’), these guys keep it loose like a goose. It comes as no great surprise to discover this


band has shared stages with the likes of The Sonics, Eddie & The Hot Rods and King Khan. In fact, it makes perfect sense. Alan Brown


THE MYSTAKEN Sweet Lies From The Mystaken Grabaciones de Impacto LP www.grabacionesdeimpacto.com There’s no box that this Australian (mostly) girl group comfortably fits into, save that they are rock ’n’ roll. Not purely garage or punk rock, but on ‘Sweet Lies’, ‘Trash’ and ‘Speed Dog’ they exhibit traits and attitudes associated with such genres. Lead singers, guitarist Sally Bailey and bassist


garage/mod/R&B heads, Alvarez now finds himself peddling a kind of mutant psychedelia/ indie-rock hybrid. His press blurb talks about the “pop psyche” (with


an e?) of the late ’60s and while that’s an adequate enough description of his general ball park, I found myself constantly wishing there were more elements of both pop and psychedelia. What we actually have here is more akin to a


major label ’80s powerpop act like The Smithereens attempting to “do a July” and ending up sounding like Dr & The Medics. The processed guitar sound and metronomic drums merely serve to weigh down a set of decent enough compositions (even if you are playing “spot the hook” for much of the record – it’s ‘In My Own Time’ by The Bee Gees! Yes, and this one’s‘Wild Flowers’ by The Holy Mackerel!). Mr A needs to tone down the naff retro


trappings and pay more attention to the tunes if he wants to be taken more seriously in the future. Andy Morten


BRUCE JOYNER & THE RECONSTRUCTION Elements Haunted Lake CD


www.myspace.com/brucejoynerand thereconstruction


Georgia’s own, Bruce Joyner, releases his first new album since 1993’s solo outing Preludes & Nocturnes, for which he’s assembled his all new band, The Reconstruction


(guitarist Tom Byars, bassist Will Byars, drummer Ryan Butler). This is all guitars/no keyboards – a first for


Joyner. Bruce’s lead vocals and songwriting sound revitalised and renewed. Clarion call opener ‘Invisible Smile’ sets the tone by building and exploding into a state of the union for today’s deranged/overly medicated world. Ex-lovers’ lies and betrayal stain the gripping ‘Ex’ and ‘Knife In My Heart’. ‘Soft Explosions’ is your brain on medication. ‘Swamp Fox Foxy’ tells of the elusive titular fox lurking in the shadows.


Maria Sokratis, are almost pitch opposites at times, brash to slightly more serene, and when the backing turns harder – especially through


Andrew Horne’s guitars and Kati Bishop’s tub- thumpin’ – they can both vocalise with equally rockin’ conviction. I’m not crazy about everything here – their


version of The Sonics’ ‘Strychnine’ is rendered somewhat lumpen – but I dig the melodic pop hooks of ‘You Better Go Now’ (guitar courtesy of The Stems’ Dom Mariani) and the garage-rock insistence of ‘Doing My Head In’. Presented as a limited edition of 500 on white


vinyl, with possibly the thickest card sleeve since Head & The Hares’ Autumn Songbook. Lenny Helsing


SHEETAH ET LES WEISMULLER Hola Ye-Yeah! Screaming Apple CD www.screamingapple.de


A remake of Joyner’s own ’87 solo recording


‘Hot Georgia Nights’ easily rocks much harder and more confidently than his original, making this the definitive version. You can feel the heat and excitement of the swamp coming outta this song. Steve Elliott


LOCATORS Locators Heptown CD www.heptownrecords.com


Somewhere in Copenhagen that raw, punk-rock style so popular in the mid-90s is alive and kicking.The problem is that bands like The Devil Dogs and


New Bomb Turks did the same thing so much better. Locators certainly combine 1977 vintage punk with the flick-knife toting sleaze of The Stooges and Dictators, but when in Brit-mode on tunes like ‘Vultures’, they often end up sounding like a punk tribute act. And the yobbish backing vocals suck. Acts that have gone before really did this all so


much better while many young punk-rock contenders will blow this generic racket out of the water. Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills


DUNCAN MAITLAND Lullabies For The 21st Century Indigo Octagon CD


www.myspace.com/duncanmaitland If you don’t recognise Duncan Maitland’s name, you’d best rectify the situation soonest. A quietly illustrious figure on the Irish music scene since 1985, this former


member of Picture House has Pugwash and even XTC in his DNA, having contributed keyboards to the Colin Moulding song ‘Say It’ on the Apple Box set.


Accordingly, Maitland’s unthinkably long-


awaited debut album betrays all the innate class and impeccable taste you’d have every right to expect, and will instantly merit a McCartney-style thumbs-up from admirers of the aforementioned bands (and indeed, long-term followers of shared


At the Saturday morning pictures Johnny Weismüller used to play Tarzan, but these Weismullers, Barnabé, JéJé, Hubert, Fifi and Peter, play upbeat,


danceable and tight ’60s style garage punk and beat.


The French five piece sing 11 originals in


their native language, but with titles like ‘Cette Fille-la’ they make it easy –even for non- linguists like me. There is also a cover of ‘My Little Red Book’ done Love-style and sung in English. Well recorded and produced at that modern


garage band Mecca, Spain’s Circo Perotti Studios, the organ-driven tunes are sprightly and fun. Nothing outstays its welcome and the band respect their favourite decade without being in thrall to it. At times their sound is reminiscent of their compatriots The Slow Slushy Boys before they took a more soulful direction. Phil Suggitt


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