It takes only the best elements of rock and blues, and manages to fuse them into something ‘blues-rock’ wouldn’t sufficiently describe.
It is my absolute pleasure to welcome you to the Australian Blues-Rock Revival, ceremoniously led by the brutal and bearded BROTHERS GRIM AND THE BLUE MURDERS; a world where your girlfriend is a ‘Wah-muuuuun’, and if your fictional daughter is wronged, you are encouraged to shoot the offender in his cheatin’ son-bitch face. Repeatedly.
I last came across the Brothers Grim one Drunken Moon ago, and my jaw was resting somewhere on the beer-sodden dance floor of Manning Bar – a vast contrast to the environment in which Roll It In came to life. Against the still, picturesque backdrop of Empty Room studios, the band spent just three days (on what I guess was very little sleep) throwing every last inch of energy into Ryan ‘Coach’ Nelson’s mixing desk. The result is a slightly deranged capturing of the heaviest f*cking blues you’ve ever heard.
Opening track ‘Been A While’ is the obvious single choice. Its gritty, bluesy guitar intro may as well have been taken from a scratchy ‘30s record engineered in the Deep South. As the band kicks off, it’s catchy and carefree; littered with handclaps and the smooth backing vocals of Kira Puru. The track list takes a sinister turn in the addictive bends of ‘My Kind of Love’, and dampens into the flawlessly drunken tempos and hopeless slurs of ‘Ease On In’.
Roll It In is a delicious display of prolific musicianship, and a groove indicative of a true understanding of the blues, not one developed robotically through years of swing-feel study.
**** 1/2 out of five stars
BY SHERIDAN MORLEY
Roll It In is out now on Unpure Records.
