Sunday 9 June 2019

Various Artists - Steampunk Records Sampler 1 (CD Review)


Steampunk Records Sampler 1

01. Victor and the Bully – Butterfly Effect
02. Professor Elemental & Tom Caruana – Mectoria
03. The Wattingers – Dead Man’s Hat
04. The Heaven and Hell Orchestra – The Bad Vision
05. BB Blackdog – Thousand Years
06. Off Limits – Calling Witchcraft
07. Aeronautica – Pech and Schwefel
08. Feline & Strange with Mishkin Fitzgerald – Cassandras Twin
09. Darwin Project – Run Red Run
10. Gurdybird – Papa Zulu
11. Capt Roswell & The Lost Alien Tribe – Alien Eye
12. LM Cooke Music – Moon Song
13. Miss Von Trapp - Do Your Gears Hang Low
14. Cabaret Berlin – Beautiful Berlin
15. The Big Fibbers – Steam Tramp Blues
16. Victor Sierra – El Mundo Superior
17. The Dark Design – Haggard Rider
18. Kiss Like Ether – Heaven Can Wait
19. Montague Jacques Fromage with Victor & The Bully – Walk A Little Lopside
20. My Wooden Leg – Cop City
21. Lies Of The Machine – Psychocircus

22. New Jacobin Club – Angel MMXIV




Trying to review a 22 track sampler cd that you cannot buy is a bit of a bugger, however it does act as a good guide to what the record label is offering on a selection of Various Artists compilations you can buy as well as releases from many of the individual acts.

I have said this before and I will say it again, the notion of Steampunk as a music genre is a nonstarter, there is music performed in numerous styles by people who identify with the Steampunk culture, this can influence their writing style and their appearance and the way they market their image.
Some music here is clearly influenced from a different age and for any pedants amongst you would no doubt identify some chosen genres as ‘Dieselpunk’ or even ‘Cyberpunk’, personally I prefer to take the music as I hear it regardless of what it is or isn’t supposed to be.
That said I will now attempt to put some of these acts into an identifiable music genre which I hope will make the review easier to digest.

Well just spent the best part of an hour hunting down these bands on good old Facebook, so I think I have a bit of an idea what to expect from some of the acts, some seem quite interesting others slightly disturbing.

Kicking off with ‘Victor and the Bully’ a great upbeat neo rock n roll sounding song, a bit like Rocket From The Crypt. The band also return in collaboration with American Steampunk legend Montague Jacques Fromage, this time a completely different sound, more poppy, upbeat and happy with Mr Fromage delivering, as ever, a superb tongue in cheek funky rap.

The ‘Wattingers’, have a super sleazy swamp blues vibe, defiantly one for Nick Cave fans, need to hear some more to get an overall idea of what they about.
Not too sure what to make of ‘The Heaven and Hell Orchestra’, I suppose if Therion had been around in the 1930’s they may have sounded a bit like this.

As ever ‘BB Blackdog’ blow the hell out of the speakers with their strange eclectic mix of Psychedelic rock and the bass crazed antics of Primus!


Totally stunning mix of neo folk and hard rock comes ‘Off Limits’, great vocal style and loving the use of violin, one for Skyclad fans.
Accordion into Celtic rock and sung in German, I feel that we have in ‘Aeronautica’ a band who like Turisas, Alestorm and Rammstein.


Want a totally breath-taking four minutes? Then ’Feline & Strange with Mishkin Fitzgerald’ song “Cassandras Twin” will do just that. Amazing operatic performance with simple piano and electronic backing, could be from the soundtrack to “Repo! The Genetic Opera”.




Taking a complex instrument the Hurdy Gurdy and bringing it into the 21st century with a slight techno backing, may seem a hard thing to pull off with class, but ‘Gurdybird’ seem to do this with ease.

If you like post 1980’s Hawkwind then ‘Capt Roswell & The Lost Alien Tribe’ with its drums n synths backing to some Hillage inspired riffery then this is the band for you.
Dark and atmospheric Acid Folk is on offer from ‘LM Cooke Music’ I highly recommend her album ‘Nursery Rhymes for the Apocalypse’.

Time for some modern interpretation of classic British music hall from ‘Miss Von Trapp’ in the style of legends such as Lily Morris and Marie Lloyd.

From the music halls of Britain to the clubs of Weimar era of the early 1930’s and ‘Cabaret Berlin’ bring us a perfect recreation of singer and pianist as if they had somehow time travelled to the here and now.


‘The Big Fibbers’ with their “Steam Tramp Blues” is an oddity almost as if John Otway & Wild Willy Barrett were doing a version of the Stray Cats!

I have no idea what ‘Victor Sierra’ are on, but if Rob Zombie did a slow and weird cover of a Brujeria song it might sound like this?
‘The Dark Design’ have a cowpunk vibe, if that’s not a term you have heard before, well back in the early 1980’s there was a brief and strange mix of post punk and country & western music.

Some industrial tinged proto cyberpunk from ‘Kiss Like Ether’, very 80’s but the mix is quite thin.
‘My Wooden Leg’ great name for a band, this is a bit quirky, touch of Primus in there and some Zappa like guitar work.




With a song called “Psychocircus” I was expecting perhaps a cover of the Kiss song, but strangely ‘Lies Of The Machine’ have some interesting elements of Death and Black Metal, nice clean vocals and then deth growls, then throw in some symphonic vocals, needs more investigating but if you like Dimmu Borgir or Cradle Of Filth then check this band out.




Finally ‘New Jacobin Club’ with a sound that seems to blend 70’s Blondie with 90’s metalcore, again another band I feel the need to check out.

So as you can see plenty of different music styles to get your interest going and next time you see the word ‘Steampunk’, well don’t be put off, there really is some stunning music out there!


Steampunk Records Facebook Page

Giant Dwarf - Giant Dwarf (CD Review)


Giant Dwarf – Giant Dwarf


01.Golden Walrus 
02.Black Thumb     
03.Disco Void         
04.Kepler     
05.Repeat After Defeat   
06.Strange Wool   
07.High Tide Blues
08.The Deluge

Aaron Soppo (Vocals)
Luke Drag (Drums / Percussion)
S John Paterson (Bass)
Rick (Guitar / Sitar)

Russ Tee (Guitar / Didgeridoo)




From the capital of Western Australia, Perth, Giant Dwarf were founded sometime in 2015 by musicians obsessed with all things fuzzy, heavy, psychedelic, drone, progressive and weird (you know, the good stuff!).

‘Golden Walrus’ is nice and fuzzy, full of punchy riffs and melodic vocals and plods along at a nice pace, nothing outstanding as such, but then half way through it starts getting weird adding a nice new dimension then ends.

As for the second track ‘Black Thumb’ it has the feel of Deep Purples ‘Black Night’ being covered by Queens of the Stone Age.

Get that QOTSA feel from the next one as well, that said ‘Disco Void’ gets a real psychedelic hit and requires the volume level at max!

‘Kepler’ is a sonic blasting masterpiece of fuzz, stoner rock melting into space rock, the general vibe of which continues to the next track as well.

Loving the instrumental ‘Strange Wool’ a real heavy, fuzzy blues piece, unlike the next track ‘High Tide Blues’ which is neither blues or a tribute to the band High Tide, but another straight forward rocker.

Ending with another full on sonic blast is ‘The Deluge’ a space rocker, searing guitar work, great vocals, rhythmic drum patterns and clever use of sitar.

Rating 9/10
For Fans Of: Monster Magnet, Queens of the Stone Age, Uncle Acid & Deadbeats, Electric Wizard, Mudhoney.

Monday 3 June 2019

Feline & Strange - Science Fiction (CD Review)


Feline & Strange – Science Fiction

01.Science Fiction (A Space Opera)
02.Hello World
03.Because (A Wedding Waltz)
04.Why Me
05.I See You
06.Leaving For The Seaside
07.Love Is (Utterly Overrated)
08.I Should Have Told You Before
09.Anybody
10.You Said
11.Going Away (Farewell Letter)
12.End Of The World
13.Lost In The Moon
14.Epilogue

Feline Lang (Vocals/Programming/Accordion/Castanets)
Christoph Klemke (Drums/Percussion/Violincello)
Matthias Haecker (Keyboards)
Ulrich Christenn (Trombone/Trumpet/Alto Saxophone/Tuba/Flute)
Marc Andre Haller (Bass/Double Bass/Chapman Stick)

Guest Musicians
Timothy Beuther (Drums)
Stefan Kelber (Violin)

Brigitte Langnickel-Kohler (Concert Harp)




Feline is the daughter of harpist Brigitte Langnickel-Köhler and pianist Reinhard Langnickel, Brigitte first appeared on record in 1975 backing the Hannover Boys Choir on the LP ‘Ein Kind Ist Uns Geboren’.
Growing up with a musical family Feline went on to study acting and singing in Berlin.
By 2003 she released her debut album ‘Tango L’Che!, performed in theatre productions including ‘Kabale and Liebe’ and appeared in the 2004 movie by Marcus Mittermeier called ‘Muxmäuschenstill’. There have also been television appearances and operatic performances in ‘Carmen’ and ‘Dulcinea’.

In 2009 whilst working with an operatic ensemble she decided to go in a new direction and formed a duo named " Feline and Strange ", the idea was to mix Jazz with electropop influences and at various times the duo were joined by numerous different musicians for live performances, eventually releasing an album in 2011 called ‘Behavior!

Moving forward and aided by new musicians including Marc Andre Haller former bassist with folk/psych band Habakuk, the band take a slight change in musical direction and start to pick up a cult following with the steampunk community based in Berlin.
From that point on their reputation grew and the word spread, it was in fact Radio presenter and Steampunk author Steven C. Davis who at a recent meeting handed me this CD to review.

Though I am not quite sure that this style of Cabaret Noir could be classed as Steampunk, surely due to its historical time frame it would be Dieselpunk, I won’t let such things cloud my review and pour myself a nice glass of absinthe and then press play.




The album begins with ‘Science Fiction (A Space Opera)’ and we begin the journey through this concept album with the lyrics taking the form of a novelette written by Feline and included in very small writing in the booklet.
With a subtle electronic backing and laid back brass arrangements Feline delivers a semi operatic and tone perfect vocal.

‘Hello World’ is slightly more upbeat, again it is the brass arrangements that come through the mix, reminiscent at times of the less Avant-Garde moments of legendary German band Vampires Sound Incorporation.

After a nice waltz we get something slightly more dadaesque with ‘Why Me’ mixing as it does quirky little keyboard sounds with changing rhythms, the vocal is a little more playful and some really nice synth work towards the end.

‘Leaving For The Seaside’ has the opening lyric of: “I woke up in a dusty town (Somebody should have come with a vacuum cleaner)” what a line!

Something darker with strange flute and some other slightly disturbing instruments with ‘I Should Have Told You Before’, a nice mixture of vocal styles and wolf howls all help create an atmospheric piece of outstanding music.

Back to some nice electronics with a jazz influence, ‘Anybody’ begins with a quiet vocal and just builds as it goes along, a gentle song that gets the toes tapping and when that drum and keyboard gets going towards the middle I can seriously get a vision of Densmore and Manzarek of the Doors then joined by Lol Coxhill, by far my favourite track so far, could do with another ten minutes or so to really let the musicians go wild.

‘You Said’ is given the old fashioned treatment of sounding like a 78RPM polka recording.
This is followed by a melancholic performance, perhaps to be expected with a piece titled ‘Going Away (Farewell Letter).

‘Lost In The Moon’ throws into the mix little moments of inspired Avant Garde madness in an otherwise mature sounding smooth jazz piece, we then end with the unlisted track ‘Epilogue’ which is an upbeat danceable song resplendent with whistles!

This is an album that far exceeds its given genre limitations, it is vibrant full of interesting styles and has a wide appeal, whatever music you like this deserves your attention.

Rating 10/10
For Fans Of: Nico & John Cale, Marianne Faithfull, Siegfried Schwab, Dagmar Krause, Ute Lemper, Annexus Quam, Tomorrow’s Gift, The Dresden Dolls.