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
