‘best of’ set. That said, his voice is as hot as


ever and the band are never far behind. Andy Morten


BRIMSTONE HOWL We Came In Peace Alive Records www.alive-totalenergy.com


I’ve spent a few nights wrapping my head around the beast that is We CameIin Peace. Having always been too explosive for their mortal skin,


Brimstone Howl are less of a band, and more an offensive attack. Unashamedly passionate about garage rock and gloriously dispassionate toward those who fail to recognise it as the feral noise of a caveman pounding wild boars with jagged granite. Produced by Jim Diamond (see


The Dirtbombs, The Gories et al) amidst the chaos, songs like ‘Easy To Dream’ teeters on the brink of sentiment for all of three minutes, approaching slumber until shaken awake by the creep of Iggy Pop on tracks like ‘Obliterator.’ With Nick Cave vocals and dark closet production keeping front man John Ziegler firmly in check. Not that this should deter listeners


from what is essentially another monumentally loud album from Alive. In its field, on par with The Heads Under Sided or anything by The Cramps. Richard S Jones


GRAHAM DAY& THE GAOLERS Triple Distilled Damaged Goods CD www.damagedgoods.co.uk


“Don’t confuse me with someone righting wrongs / please excuse me, I just love writing songs”. So sings Graham Day in ‘Just A Song’, one of the highlights of


this, the second Gaolers album and the gazzilionth long-player in a canon that now spans 26 years and probably as many bands. It’s barely a year since we reviewed the Anglo-American trio’s debut in this very organ, during which time former Daggermen/Goodchilde/Buff Medways/ general all-round Medway good guy Johnny Barker has relieved Buzz Hagstrom of his bass duties, albeit temporarily. There are no surprises here but


then what do you expect from a Graham Day record? Power ballads? If anything, the musical palette has shrunk even further, relying almost solely on the patented brand of ’60s garage via ’70s punk that Day has made his own whilst toning down the inimitable pop suss we’ve grown to love. It’s all cracking stuff but only the emotionally raw ‘Goodbye’ and the sitar-enhanced ‘Pass That Whiskey’ would make that dream Day


DUNGEN Dungen 4 Subliminal Sounds www.subliminalsounds.se


Dungen, holders of the torch of Swedish


psychedelia, keep alive the flame but remain far from retro-revivalism. The Subliminal Sounds label owned


and run by ex-Stomachmouth Stefan Kéry, is the logical home of a band this special. Their last album Tio Bitar managed to garner wide interest without turning them into the latest indie bores. Album 4 is sung in Swedish yet dominated by instrumental interplay some damn fine tunes. It never noodles endlessly in tedious ’70s abandon but is rather laid back in jazzy grooves that effortlessly introduce explosive moments such as the outstanding guitar freakout of ‘Samtidgit 1’. ‘Fredag’ is a plain weird euro progressive psych groove wheras ‘Finns det någon möjlighet’ (don’t ask me to pronounce it) is a harmony-filled experimental progressive pop epic that sees some beautiful interplay between the strings and the band before collapsing into the kind of understated heavy guitar mayhem that never loses your attention. Richard Allen


FIRE The Magic Shoemaker Live Angel Air CD www.angelair.co.uk


37 years after it’s initial release, the first ever live performance of the whole of Fire’s 1970 “post- psychedelic fairytale” The Magic Shoemaker,


took place at The Windlesham Theatre in Surrey. What’s more, on stage was the original threesome, accompanied by their original manager providing the narration, with the story slightly adapted so that the band’s pre-LP freakbeat classics ‘Father’s Name Is Dad’ and ‘Treacle Toffee World’, along with a couple of at the time unreleased songs, could be included as well. I doubt that any fan will prefer this to the original album, but it’s an hour or so just as magical as the titular shoes. The band is mostly sticking to the original arrangements so it will work for newcomers just as well. In case any of you are reading this, you’ll be guided through a wide range of late ’60s subgenres, such as freakbeat (‘Flies Like A Bird’), jazzy blues (‘Like To Help If I Can’), Who-like pop-sike (‘I Can See The Sky’, ‘Reason For Everything’), lysergic ballads by way of Traffic (‘Only A Dream’, ‘Shoemaker’), and even toytown psych, reminiscent of Mark Wirtz’s Teenage Opera (‘Magic Shoes’). Goran Obradovic


FUAD & THE FEZTONES Beeramid Richochet CD, Soundflat LP www.ricochetsound.com


The mock tomb paintings on the cover show Ancient Egyptians creating a beer can pyramid. The liners are full of corny puns (“…this rockin’ record is


sure to be your Bag, dad!”) The band all have pseudonyms like ‘Lou Dacts – drums/vocals’. Track listings are in hieroglyphics. Yep, these Canadians are a party fun band who don’t take themselves too seriously. The only thing they do take seriously is their frat party music, a potent punch of soul, R&B and twist tunes shaken with a garage mixer. Gruesomes Bobby Beaton (aka Fuad) and John Davis join forces with Liam O’Neil and Dave Hamelin from Montreal band The Stills to produce 20 swingin’, largely self-penned tunes that will have everyone dancing and leaving their inhibitions behind. With memorable sax and organ based instros (‘Valley Of The Kings’) or crazed vocal numbers (‘The Boogaloser’) the message has stayed the same since since 3000BC; Shake It, Baby! Phil Suggitt


ASHLEY HUTCHINGS AND ERNESTO DE PASCALE My Land Is Your Land Esoteric CD www.cherryred.co.uk


This intellectual and musical collaboration between Ashley Hutchings, formerly of Fairport


Convention, and Ernesto De


Pascale, an Italian musician, producer and broadcaster, is a concept album celebrating English and Italian cultures. My Land Is Your Land


encompasses a range of vocalists, musicians and archive recordings in its tapestry of modern folk-rock. It’s an interesting package, swapping between male and female voices, acoustic folk and electric rock, the quirkiness of the jew’s harp and the backbone of the bass. In its gentler moods, like during ‘The Old Masters’, there’s effective whipping-wind intensity to the album, which allows forgiveness for a few outdated rockier moments like ‘You Are What You Eat’. But it’s the spoken word tracks,


‘The Call Of Yesterday’ and ‘Come Join Together’, delivered against the hum of a violin, which are the twin hearts of the album. They ensure My Land Is Your Land truly does welcome the listener into its realms. Jeanette Leech


ANGEL KAPLAN Transparent Dayze EP Lost Recordings This is Angel Kaplan, bass player with Spanish garage’n’beat outfit Dr Explosion.


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