(This review first appeared in issue #67 of Shindig! magazine.)
MaSonic
CD/LP
Jim
Jones has always looked across the Atlantic for inspiration in his
thirty years of music making. From channelling The Stooges in Thee
Hypnotics, playing homage to soul and funk in Black Moses, to the
good time rock 'n' roll of The Jim Jones Revue. This latest
incarnation embraces the dark-hearted voodoo and rhythms of New
Orleans.
As
always there's an emphasis on volume and sheer sonic attack. The
louder tracks may take your head off, but alongside the
ear-bludgeoning guitars are perhaps the best lyrics of Jones' career,
delivered with a gravelly growl Captain Beefheart would have been
proud of. The effect is akin to Nick Cave fronting an art-rock
version of The Band armed with stacked amps and Big Muff pedals.
Superstition, catharsis, darkness, dynamics, the ghosts of music past
and pointers to a new future, it's all there. Swamp rock Jim, but not
as we know it!
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