Nekromantix – 3 Decades Darkle (Cleopatra Records/MVD Visuals)

Nekromantix – 3 Decades Darkle (Cleopatra Records/MVD Visuals)

When a special edition all singing all dancing live album / DVD / Blue Ray arrives there’s only one thing to do. Push the sofa against the wall turn the speakers up and start dancing like a demented chicken. Part Danish Part American psychobilly trio are celebrating their thirtieth year as a going concern and celebrate it with this here nineteen song set recorded in the Observatory Theatre, Santa Ana in California.  It wasn’t just captured with microphones but Vincente Cordero directed some blue ray cameras in the direction of the band as they slam danced through their set.

The trio entertain an excited audience with tracks from the bands nine album back catalogue and there are also extended features including interview as well as a rare photo archive.  To be fair its an impressive catalogue of an evening and the fact you get Blue Ray, DVD and audio is a bonus that just about covers all bases.

Let’s start here with the bonus features that are an interview with the band that’s over twenty minutes long a trailer of the feature and a bunch of trailers for other films like Johnny Thunders flick that came out this year, Janes addiction and a whole load of pretty irrelevant other offerings from Cleopatra.

As for the track selections you can go to any track on the discs which is cool so you don’t have to wade through the whole film if you only want to watch some of the encores.  The quality is 4K so its exceptional quality and the live sound is fantastic and the arguments within the fan circles about original line up compared to what’s on offer today doesn’t bother me as I love what they do sound-wise and as far as the gritty psychobilly sound its just as good today as it was all those years ago. Kim Nekroman is still leading the charge with his trademark homemade coffin bass and the horror slap bass anthems are still as strong as they always were I’ll keep checking them out. Oh and you Ghouls out there you can also pick this up on double slime green vinyl as well which looks awesome.

Author: Dom Daley

Buy 3 Decades Of Darkle Here

Bat – Bat Music For Bat People (Cleopatra Records)

Bat – Bat Music For Bat People (Cleopatra Records)

If you were to cross members of Nekromantix, The Brains, Stellar Corpses, and Rezurex! You’d get a batty mix of Psychobilly punk rock and roll so it’s a bit of luck that just that has waled into the ether and dropped onto RPM HQ. With special guest slots form the likes of Jyrki 69 of The 69 Eyes and Danny B. Harvey! It’s fair to say I was sitting up waiting for the air to be filled with the sound of some pretty heady rock and roll. It’s fair to say I wasn’t disappointed.

As I scan the cover I notice a few surprises in the choice of covers ranging from The Damned and some pretty famouse pop tunes given a good seeing to. With fifteen original tracks and five psychobilly-infused covers including their renditions of Danzig (“Mother”), the king of surf Dick Dale (“Misirlou”), The Damned (“Love Song”), Gloria Jones (“Tainted Love”), Portugal. The Man (“Feel It Still”), and Panic! At The Disco “Say Amen” (Saturday Night). To be fair ‘Tainted Love’ has previously been given the Psychobilly treatment from Living End and this is a very similar version. also doing Danzig isn’t too much of a stretch either seeing as both vocals are very similar.  The one that really intrigued me was them taking on the mighty Damned and ‘Love Song’ and to be fair it’s such a monumental tune its never going to touch the original but as far as interpretations go this is decent.  Great crunchy guitar with the drums rolling through like a steam train and whilst they remain fairly faithful its a great attempt and Damned fan needn’t look away. As far as ‘Mother’ goes this is cool as I’m not a huge Danzig fan and I guess it would have been too easy to pick a Misfits tune so this is good and once it breaks open I love it.

 

As for the original tunes I love the groove they get into on ‘Graveyard Girl’ and the guest vocalist work of Jyrki is suitably Gothic and dark How cool would it be if he took a bit of this direction back to 69 Eyes? to be fair twenty tracks is a lot of music to work your way through and whilst the heart is always Rockabilly there is enough variety here and with the inclusion of the covers breaks up the record.  Saying that it could have been two albums six months apart but hey what do I know?

If you want a bunch of songs to pick through to try before you buy then look no further than ’50s inspired ‘She Wolf’ or the melodic ‘We Own The Night’ which is like one of the best songs the Misfits never got hold of. ‘Getaway Car’ is poptastic from the acoustic guitars it’s like a modern ‘Leader Of The Pack’ and could easily sell huge in the American alternative market and crossover. ‘The Man’ follows suit I love the dripping reverb on that guitar lick an interesting cover, to say the least.

Fans of the other bands these guys are in will be interested in checking this out as will rockabilly rebels and fans of quality Rock and Roll out looking for a whole lot of music for your money and excellent tunes they are too.  Pick it up!

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Author: Dom Daley