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 21^st 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!

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