{"id":27159,"date":"2025-10-01T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=27159"},"modified":"2025-09-30T14:21:26","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T13:21:26","slug":"the-urban-voodoo-machine-other-peoples-children-gypsy-hotel-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=27159","title":{"rendered":"The Urban Voodoo Machine – \u2018Other People\u2019s Children\u2019 (Gypsy Hotel Records)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Covers albums can be hit and miss affairs. There are plenty out there, the good, the bad and the ugly. Well, with 5 studio albums, 2 compilations and an album of artists covering their own songs, London-based collective The Urban Voodoo Machine have surely earned the right to release a covers collection of their very own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chief songwriter Paul-Ronney Angel certainly thinks so. And in a world saturated with AI versions of your favourite songs reimagined as funk, soul or reggae, it seems fitting the one of the most exciting live bands around take 11 songs (some familiar, some not so familiar) and record them using real instruments, played by real musicians in a real recording studio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me, the essence of a good cover version is to put your own stamp on it and create your own masterpiece from an already existing piece of art. The Urban Voodoo Machine do just that with the opening song of \u2018Other People\u2019s Children\u2019. Their take on the AC\/DC classic \u2018Hell\u2019s Bells\u2019 was actually recorded many moons ago for a Classic Rock compilation CD (remember those?). Who knew that injecting some bourbon-soaked gypsy blues bop n\u2019 stroll music would work so damn well? With that iconic riff picked on an acoustic guitar and a horns & brushed beats accompaniment, PR and his band of brothers do the unimaginable and make the song their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s a strong start, but they keep the pace up with a rip-roaring one-two that really captures the live feel of the band. You could argue that \u2018Rhinestone Cowboy\u2019 and The Stones \u2018Factory Girl\u2019 were made to be covered by Paul at his most inebriated, and the delivery just fits the feel of songs. Its captured beautifully, as our ringleader wails whisky-soaked tones over crashing, rustic instrumentation. The latter especially works so well with banjo and horns to the fore, creating a gypsy style party vibe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noone can deny the pop suss of ABBA, and \u2018Chiquitita\u2019 has never been tackled with such drunken aplomb. Side 1 ends with a spaghetti western drenched version of \u2018Destiny Angel, an emotive song written by sadly departed founding member Nick Marsh. It has been re-recorded here with the help of members of Nick\u2019s family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Side 2 carries on the tribute to lost members theme with \u2018The Lodger\u2019, a song written by Mark Gilligan, who played with the band on and off for many years. His son Tristan joins the band on guitar for this Pogues inspired folky ditty, it’s a killer tribute. Originally a hit for The Standells in 1966, \u2018Dirty Water\u2019 is a rock n\u2019 roll party that sounds like about 5 UVM songs rolled into one. With a faster pace and a fistful of energy, it’s probably my favourite song on the record right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ry Cooder\u2019s \u2018Across The Borderline\u2019, with its re-tagged \u201cLondon, you\u2019re my home\u201d refrain is topical and suitably delivered in an acoustic based, gypsy blues style. The late night \u2018live in the studio\u2019 vibes continue with the smoky \u2018Jimmy Jazz\u2019, where PR and his harmonica take the spotlight to do justice to The Clash and make this London Calling cut even more jazzy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Urban Voodoo Machine love a good instrumental and if you’ve seen them live, you may well have seen them open with the classic \u2018Popcorn\u2019. Here it comes on like it’s been ripped straight from a Tarantino movie. The gospel classic \u2018I’ll Fly Away\u2019 brings things to a close nicely, a song the band play regularly in their other incarnation as The Urban Voodoo Machine Marching Band, who play funerals with a New Orleans style twist. Maybe I\u2019ll get them booked in for my send off!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The live energy Of The Urban Voodoo Machine is captured magnificently by Alex McGowan at Space Eko Studios, and the great thing about this album is that it sounds like a regular Urban Voodoo Machine record. They bring the party every time, whether it’s their own songs or these other people\u2019s children that they have made their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like I said at the beginning, covers albums are hit & miss affairs, and this one is very much a hit as far as I’m concerned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy Here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author: Ben Hughes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Covers albums can be hit and miss affairs. There are plenty out there, the good, the bad and the ugly. Well, with 5 studio albums, 2 compilations and an album of artists covering their own songs, London-based collective The Urban Voodoo Machine have surely earned the right to release a covers collection of their very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27160,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[726,1787,1818,1710,1681,1680,2052],"class_list":["post-27159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-ben-hughes","tag-its-a-revolution","tag-new-album","tag-rpm-online","tag-rpmnews1","tag-rpmonline","tag-vinyl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27159"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27162,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27159\/revisions\/27162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}