To suggest Hairy Mountain might be Demon Blues part 2 sounds like dismissal, but it’s not inaccurate – album numero dos doesn’t futz with the formula established by the first one. Mariani, Hitchcock and friends grok that bluesy hard rock arrangements + power pop melodies = guitar pop bliss. – Michael Toland / READ THE REVIEW HERE
Dom Mariani and Greg Hitchcock‘s Datura 4 have released an album that says everything about the joy of electric guitar. Checking out the trippy cover art (I want what Joshua Marc Levy is having…) and taking in the title – Hairy Mountain – my son said “This just has to be good…”
It’s better than good, it’s the best thing I have heard all year (to be honest it is a tie for 2016 with Bill Hunt‘s acoustic and startling Upwey). Hairy Mountain serves up riff after delicious riff over ten killer tracks. As a fan of rock and roll guitar, I found myself happily saturated with huge tones, big hearted rock and roll and more than a few nods to the great original psychotic reactors of Detroit, London and Sydney. Rock with great pop sensibility – it is an unbeatable and irresistible one-two punch. – READ THE WHOLE REVIEW HERE
INTRODUCTIONS ARE IN ORDER – For the regular listeners to The Outlaw Roadshow radio program, this one’s no surprise. I’m so excited to share one of one of my favorite sounds of 2016 and a staple on our weekly show. Sulfur City play their first Outlaw Roadshow next week in Toronto, bringing both sides of their sound: a post-punk blues stomp and their equally amazing improvisational jazz rock grooves. The two worlds are proven to co-exist on one stage. This listener likens it to frenetic hard blues shaken up in the repertoire of a sick world band. – The Outlaw Roadshow here
The retro milieu in which Leg works is part of his swampy mystique, and it works to his advantage as his growling vocals and dazzling organ and electric piano work coalesce in thick slabs of analog glory. Again, this is part of what drew fans to him in the first place, but the new tones he introduces here also provide the two biggest album highlights. From the start, “St. Michel Shuffle” feels different, setting Leg’s fierce growls against an odd, throbbing organ backdrop, brightly tinkling piano, and a robust gypsy-classical string arrangement. It’s dynamic, unique, and easily the most striking track on the album. Similarly, the closer “Should Have Been Home with You” reprises the shuffling gypsy-blues sound with some fiery interplay between the trilling fiddle and Leg’s distorted Fender Rhodes, making for a different kind of barnburner than he’s previously delivered. More exploratory than some of his previous work, Blood on the Keys is another quality outing from Leg. – READ THE REVIEW HERE
And the award for the best album title of the year goes to……
In the summer of last year, some Mp3s arrived at MV Towers from the Alive Naturalsound stable. Like when you were a kid you always knew that the red and white Atlantic spine was the mark of a great record, then reviewing as we do now, you always think “oh this might be cool” when it comes from certain labels.
This was from a band called Datura4, who had emerged from Aussie pop heroes DM3 and featured members of You Am I (a band who we’d loved back at the turn of the century) Datura4 dealt in classic rock and the album was a triumph. MV waxed lyrical on the subject and as well as calling “Demon Blues” amongst other things “spectacular”, we said it was “kind of a cross between chilled out Psych rock, blues and fuzzy 1960s garage rock n roll.
Now, perhaps in the spirit of those classic rock forefathers, just over 12 months later comes “Hairy Mountain” and, it too is a triumph.
One that sort of belongs to the same hinterland as the debut, certainly the fuzzy bliss of opener “Fools Gold Rush” and the knowing 60s harmonies of the verse are a suggestion that this is another labour of love. That said “….Mountain” does move things into a more modern arena this time around. – READ THE WHOLE REVIEW HERE
Western Australia’s Datura4 are unveiling their second album later this week, and we’ve got their vintage ’70s psych rocker “Trolls” to premiere today. The song is pretty killer, and would have been at home on the Dazed and Confused soundtrack. So, what we’re saying is you better jam on this crank the volume to 11. – MAXIMUM VOLUME HERE