Labels: Jonson Family – Shifty
Review by: Kunal Nandi
This kicks off in the greatest style: loud, heavy and drunk as shit. A mindlessly natural rhythm combined with the perfect note and the perfect tempo keeps the riff to “Red Giant”’s momentum swinging along beautifully, all the way to its logical collapse nine minutes later. “Vengeance” is perfectly named “” it sounds like it’s seething with rage, hell-bent on getting something out of you that you don’t want to give up, aided on its way by yet another kinetic killer riff. The typical lazy journo’s description of this mob (featuring ex-members of quieter acts such as Yeast, Stanton, I’m Being Good and Econoline) combines Black Sabbath and Can, and being your typical lazy journo, I can’t think of a better description. The repetitive, pinpoint accurate song-writing approach of Krautrock is there, but it’s all bloated and excessive in terms of volume and distortion, with a primal driving force behind the whole thing, accentuated by the old standard of alternating the long epics with the short rockers. The vinyl version (with an alternate track order for logistical reasons) is out on the always grand Wakusei Records (www.wakuseirecords.co.uk).