When the word "Magnafuzz" is in your album title, you're pretty much giving away the ending right away. Radio Moscow made waves with their Dan Auerbach-produced debut. No Dan in sight here, and also nothing in sight even remotely resembling control. In a good way...The frenetic hippie-biker jams evoke some horribly scary speed-acid freak out scene that would only be found in the darket alley Austin, Texas bar. (Even though they're from Iowa).
"Creepin'" is their closest effort to a slow jam. A blues harp being amoung the soloist instruments here, it kicks back with a sexy blues groove. I almost called "Turtle Back Rider" a more reined-in commercial effort, but even a minute after the Black Keys-ian opening riff, everything gets sped back up again, And they throw in the whole kitchen sink, washtub and lazy susan.
It's this lack of abandon which is going to hinder Radio Moscow from acheiving any mainstream success. It's certainly not directionless, but it's also crazy and too colorful. But judging from the jambandy "Densaflorativa", you might be able to find them enjoying hippie summer fest success. And there enough of those jams to idicate that that is what the band has in mind. Being The Who in a sea of San Francisco-hair-flower-children.
The highlight of the collection is "Misleading Me". An acoustic-based riff which is no less whacked out than the rest of the record, but does imploy more blues vocals than any other tune here. (3 of 5 stars)
No comments:
Post a Comment