Scant Regard – Skipping Over Damaged Area

Pic by Thomas Triton

A body infesting, imagination twisting kaleidoscope to the hope and insanity of the world we shape, Skipping Over Damaged Area is the senses ravishing new captivation from Scant Regard. An album of unscrupulous hooks, electronic virulence, and guitar carved intimation, it surges through ears casting a realm of suggestion and reflection as devilish as the themes inspiring its creative antics leaving hope, fear, and sheer pleasure in its wake.

Scant Regard is the solo project of London-based guitarist/writer/producer Will Crewdson. He is a musician few can have failed to have been consciously or unknowingly pleasured by. Whether with the rock escapades of Rachel Stamp, which he co-founded, and She Made Me Do It or through his work with the likes of Adam Ant, The Selecter, Johnette Napolitano, Flesh for Lulu, Bow Wow Wow and numerous other bands he played guitar for, Crewdson is a guitarist who has been in demand because of his instinctive ability to incite and bend the imagination as well as simply ignite songs and ears alike. Scant Regard has been an adventurous showcase for his craft and skills across four previous albums, Skipping Over Damaged Area a riveting new addition to their ranks.

Exploring various shades in an overall theme “of the apocalyptic destruction and devolution of the planet we live on”, Skipping Over Damaged Area is a tenacious maze of styles and flavours glazed with a sci-fi nurtured intrigue. At times it is like a warped soundtrack to a seventies TV show such as UFO, Space: 1999, or Doomwatch but with a dark lining in its every move; corrupting hope and light at a turn, tempering their threat in the next.

The album opens up with the swiftly addictive Mostly Accidental, electric pulses exploding on impact as it swaggers into view with an almost predacious swing. Instantly electronic suggestion and animation dances and flirts on the senses, thick doomy hues underlining the brewing Westworld-esque imagery conjured in thoughts by the instrumental piece which fully comes alive once Crewdson’s guitar explodes on the imagination.

It is an outstanding beginning, one to be honest we had to listen to twice before moving on upon our first listen to Skipping Over Damaged Area but quickly matched in strength and temptation by Fuck Everything. Repeated samples of its title float across a landscape of attitude, another electronically woven tale which immerses the listener in an evolving cascade of light and dark, fun and irritancy driven by inspiring shards of guitar.

The following Ill Gotten Gains is a corruption of sound and reflection; an addiction breeding ground with melodic lures aligned to dark deeds. At times it lies somewhere between the evolution of Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh’s project British Electric Foundation into their band Heaven 17 but with thicker shadows and dare we say even more infectious boldness.

Similarly Destroy (We’re Here to) has an eighties electronic edge to it around hooks and melodies which border on the salacious. Like the musical voice to a modern day Mars Attacks, the track waltzed over the senses, sending them spiralling as the imagination conjures. Simultaneously feet and hips were given a good smile wearing work out before BIGBLACKSHADES creates a conspiracy of sound and suggestion with its cold wave meets industrial espionage. Electronics and guitar again unite in a dark interpretation of life, its funkiness contrasting yet complementing the song’s voracious dynamics.

A lighter climate accompanies the outstanding Car Crash on Pluto, the track like something akin to Fred Schneider colluding with Helldorado as they glide the cosmos upon surf rock fuelled winds, while Hemi Demi courts indie rock tenacity within its electro pop enterprise as again seventies flavoured hues spice its rock ‘n roll.

Through the celestial smoulder of Traits, a track with lava hot melodies veining a volatile shimmer, and the hook carrying electro smoking canter of Sublineage Blues, ears and imagination are drawn into further incendiary drama while Posthistoric springs a more intensive atmosphere and adventure to navigate as a bubbling undercurrent of catchiness snaps, crackles and pops. All three simply tantalise and captivate as the imagination fantasises, Crime and Retribution in turn sparking the same responses with its brooding electronic groans and emerging guitar spun cold war clamour.

The album closes with Blue Moon Juice, a collage of vivacious sounds woven into a canvas of rockabilly bred devilry; imagine a psychobilly Yello and you get a hint of the track’s irresistible lure as it brings the album to a forcibly magnet conclusion.

Skipping Over Damaged Area is a prismatic insight and incitement for body and thoughts. It impacts on numerous levels, pleasures on every one. Crewdson is no stranger to attention and acclaim and can expect plenty more with what just might be his finest moment yet.

Skipping Over Damaged Area is out now on download and CD @ https://scantregard.bandcamp.com/album/skipping-over-damaged-area

https://scantregard.com    https://www.facebook.com/scantregardpage   https://twitter.com/scantregard

Pete RingMaster 09/05/2018

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Pussycat and the Dirty Johnsons – Dirty Rock ‘n’ Roll

pic debbie-attwell

As the band work and finish material to grace a new album, British rockers Pussycat and the Dirty Johnsons have linked up with Dirty Water Records for the long awaited digital release of second album Dirty Rock ‘n’ Roll and quite simply if you missed it first time around and have an instinctive appetite for insatiable bordering salacious punk infested rock ‘n’ roll, than it is a must.

Formerly in a band just called The Johnsons, the Basingstoke hailing trio is fronted by the wild feline wiles of vocalist Puss Johnson with founding guitarist Dirty Jake (Feckle, Lube) and drummer Filfy Antz (The Krewmen) alongside uncaging their own raw and incendiary antics. It is an explosive combination which saw their 2010 debut album Exercise Your Demons earn many plaudits as too over the years a blistering live show seeing the band share stages with the likes of The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Thee Oh Sees, The Fuzztones, Mad Sin, The Damned, 999, The Polecats, The Creepshow, The Rezillos, Bow Wow Wow, The Meteors, The Vibrators, Resurex, DragSTER, Trioxin Cherry, and Atomic Suplex.  Three years later, Dirty Rock ‘n’ Roll was the cause of even greater eager attention and acclaim upon Pussycat and the Dirty Johnsons; a spotlight sure to be regenerated by its digital uncaging ahead of as mentioned a new album.

Featuring eleven tracks spun from attitude loaded threads of everything from punk, garage rock, glam, psychobilly, garage punk and any other form of rock ‘n’ roll you wish to offer, Dirty Rock ‘n’ Roll is an explosive riot for senses and body alike. Produced by Alex McGowan and featuring guest double-bassist Phil Bloomberg of The Polecats on a couple of tracks, the album instantly prowls the listener as opener Burying The Bodies settles in to place, once set continuing to stalk but with an infectious swagger led by the biting beats of Antz. Straight away there is an obvious devilment in the band’s sound and the lusty roar shared by Pussycat, her presence and delivery a snarling seducing. With big hooks and winding grooves, the slab of predacious rock ‘n’ roll is an irresistible start to a release proving to be unrelenting in its fiery creative and aggressive incitement.

Hell Bent is swift agreement, its whining grooves courting flying rhythms and Pussycat’s plaintive cries, all united in another tenacious track which eyes you up with distrust yet reveals the most compelling enterprise amidst mouth-watering unpredictability before Livin’ With Mum And Dad sees the band move from raw rock ‘n’ roll into a more seventies flavoured encounter as much glam rock and power pop as it is old school punk. For personal tastes, it lacks the bite and spark of those around it but with its Pistols-esque hook and caustic catchiness there is no escaping being sucked in.

Psychobilly flavours the magnificent stomp of Get Outta My Face next, Bloomberg bringing his masterful slaps to the Batmobile meets Imelda May scented stroll with Pussycat like a punk Wanda Jackson. Fiery guitar and senses badgering beats bolster the seriously rousing proposal as the song shows another aspect to the album and the Pussycat and the Dirty Johnsons sound.

The scuzzy blues punk of She Don’t attacks and excites next, its corrosive character and sound as virulently infectious as anything upon the album while Mirtazapine uses similar strains of flavouring for its own individual trespass. With a touch of post punks Bone Orchard to its untamed garage punk challenge, the track is a superb mix of rapacious restraint and unbridled furor taking ears and imagination into the darkest shadows of the fiercest volcano.

There is no let-up of the enjoyably exhausting confrontations as Why Do You Hate Me? sears the senses with its punk rock lava around a rhythmic tempest while Dirty Li’l Dog, with the magnetic craft of the Polecat returning, leaps around with uninhibited rhythmic rioting as blues guitars embrace numerous other spices around the carnival barker leadership of Pussycat.

The final trio of songs just epitomise the variety and devilish imagination in the band’s songs; Sort Yourself Out a fuzzy blend of growling punk and toxic blues within The Pirates like rock ‘n roll and Souvenir simply one glorious invasion of garage punk with a scent of The Cramps, Animal Alpha, and In Evil Hour in its unique best track earning triumph.

Closed out by the adrenaline fuelled and feeding Hideous, a final belligerent detonation of rabble-rousing incitement, the outstanding Dirty Rock ‘n’ Roll is its title and so much more. It might not be a new release but it deserves this new exposure and Pussycat and the Dirty Johnsons the fresh attention ahead of what can only be anticipated as another uncompromising uproar.

Dirty Rock ‘n’ Roll is available digitally through Dirty Water Records @ http://www.dirtywaterrecords.co.uk/shop/#!/Pussycat-and-the-Dirty-Johnsons-Dirty-Rock-n-Roll/p/75045471/category=2793895 with physical options @ http://thedirtyjohnsons.com/shop/4564430166

http://thedirtyjohnsons.com   https://www.facebook.com/thedirtyjohnsons/   https://twitter.com/Dirty_Johnsons

Pete RingMaster 14/12/2016

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Rhythmic slavery and expressive words: exploring the creative world of Dave Barbarossa

 A potent and swiftly vocal roar for one particular band in the past months has been very noticeable in the London and UK underground scene, an eager buzz which led ourselves and colleagues at Reputation Radio to go check out live Cauldronated, the new band of punk legend Dave Barbarossa. This is a musician who has been the rhythmic driving force and inspiration behind Adam and The Ants, Bow Wow Wow, and…well the list goes on. Certainly those first two bands, and indeed Dave’s unique playing style left a legacy still inspiring artists today, and it is quite easy to suggest his new project with Eva Menon, has the potential to make the same potent impact. So excitedly we got in touch with the man to not only discover more about the band but also to find out about Dave’s acclaimed debut novel Mud Sharks which has just had a revised edition released via New Haven Publishing Ltd. Dave kindly agreed to let us throw a torrent of questions at him, subsequently taking us into the world of Cauldronated, the seeds and landscape to Mudsharks, the linking up with Adam Ant on tour again, and the musical heart of Dave Barbarossa.

Hi Dave and thanks for sharing your time to talk with us.

There is so much to, and areas within your career to talk about but with the enjoyment at your recent show at The Unicorn, Camden still rushing through the veins and thoughts, can we look at your latest project Cauldronated first. How would you describe the band and its sound to newcomers?

Thanks for those kind words, mate. It was a pretty good gig, I have to admit. Cauldronated is a blend of quirky synths, a lot of drums, and impassioned vocals. I like the discipline of playing with a digital metronome (clicks/synths). It pushes my playing into places it wouldn’t go if I were just allowed to play as I liked…so the strictness makes me creative, that make sense?…sounds a little masochistic, but I enjoy it.

Was there a particular spark or idea which gave birth to the band?

I was working with David Harman (we were both in Chicane together). We thought we’d try something very drummy with synths and sequences.

How did the initial link up with David and Eva Menon come about; were these musicians you already had in mind to work with on something?

I’d not met Eva in person. I was aware she was a drummer. When I eventually met her, I had one of those ‘McLaren’ moments and immediately asked her to join David and me in a bit of an experiment.

Eva has a presence and drama to her stage presence which has the potential to be, in my mind, one of the most creatively imposing and invigorating vocalist you have worked with. Was it this quality which first captured your attention too?

Yes, her presence and intensity were compelling. I knew she would ‘pull her weight’ with the idea I had.

When I saw the band at The Unicorn, it was just Eva and yourself on stage, is that the usual live set-up?

At the moment it is…who knows what the future may hold.

The band has a sound and presence which feels as punk in nature and attitude as anything over the past four decades; this was a deliberate or organic essence which emerged?

It was deliberate only in the sense I wanted something uncompromising and challenging. I didn’t want to serve up what people expected. Musically, I feel uncomfortable being comfortable.

Do you still feel that individualistic punk and defiant attitude in your music and creativity as strongly as those first days and years of your career?

That ‘individualistic and defiant attitude’ sustains me. I’d be in a covers band in a pub without it. At the risk of sounding a bit of a knob, I will forever be a punk rocker.

How about in music in general, is it still loud and potent or more of a recurring whisper in modern music for you?

It is still loud and proud. You just have to dig beneath the superficial…it has always been that way.

Cauldronated seems to find you returning to and exploring the more tribalistic rhythms and contagion which marked your time in The Ants and more so Bow Wow Wow. Is this something you feel too or have you not been too far from that side of your adventure over the past years anyway, so it is just part of the current evolution of your ideation?

There are so many drummers (most better than me) playing ‘straight’ beats, ‘serving the song’, being a ‘side man’. I’ve got a trick and I’m gonna play it!

Your first novel Mud Sharks was published in 2012, but I believe it is being republished again very soon?

It is…With added extras; photo, review and a ‘Mud Sharks’ track. (please keep this under your hat until I have a release date – that will be very soon) ta.

What was the trigger to writing a novel? Was it something brewing in your thoughts for a while?

Yeah, I think a lot of us have a novel in them. I simply got mine down. Some emotional events collided with professional ones and out it came. Frankly, I’m a little stunned about how well it has been received.

Can you give a synopsis to the novel?

This is what is says on the cover so it must be right ‘Mud Sharks? Harry Ferdinand is in trouble at home, in trouble at school and now he’s in trouble with the police. He’s battered, bruised and lost until he meets the love of his life: the drums. Things are never to be the same again. Plunged into the world of Punk Rock, Harry finds purpose, adventure and heartbreak as he transforms from boy to man.’

It looks at and confronts racism and violence in its story, within the embrace of the seventies music scene. How much is autobiographical or inspired from experiences you have had or closely come across yourself?

It is a story based on my childhood, schooldays and early career. Not a factual, chronological ‘blow by blow’ of my life. But, all the stuff, good and bad, happened, pretty much.

Do you feel its narrative and observations still represent the current music world and young lives within it now?

It is a story of its time, but perhaps it resonates with people of ‘Harry’s age now. Dunno

Have you plans to write another book in the future?

Yep, finished the second…It is going through the editing and proofing stage. These things take yonks.

Returning to music, what were the inspirations which led you into music predominantly?

I was captivated by the drums, so big and loud. I wanted to master the instrument, on a very basic level. Never dreamed it would be my life.

We have to ask about those heady days, certainly for us fans, when Dirk Wears White Sox was the creative anthem for a great many of us. What are your strongest personal recollections of that time with Adam and the Ants and in the punk scene generally?

Well, it was a while ago and at a time when a young person’s life flashes by. Personally, I was in a perpetual state of astonishment and relief. Both states were euphoric, blissful, magical…how’s that sound?

Next came of course Bow Wow Wow and the highly publicised and still seemingly talked of departure of yourself, bassist Leigh Gorman, and the sadly missed Matthew Ashman from the Ants. What musically enticed the move and how coincidental was it that the two projects pursued the tribal/Burundi sound from that point on?

I really can’t think of why the drums sounded so familiar in both bands – insane coincidence?   I left Adam because Malcolm gave me the opportunity to be my own man. Create my own sound and lead ‘from the back’. With Adam, I was a loyal soldier to a musical genius. I like change.

Probably the last thing fans imagined would be the coming back together of yourself and Leigh with Adam again, something which happened last year when you both joined him in The Ministers Of New Super Heavy Funk Punk and an UK tour. Was this something you would have probably not predicted over the years either or was the supposed ‘animosity’ between all parties a media driven ‘reality’?

Never been any animosity between myself and Adam. I’ve played in his bands off and on down through the decades. We have coffee, talk about our daughters.

How did the link up for the shows come about?

Adam called me and asked if I’d fancy doing the old Dirk numbers live. We’d never done it live, apparently. The minute we got in rehearsals, we knew why. He turned round to me during Animals And Men and said, ‘This is fucking jazz, how did we do it?…’

It is fair to say that you helped pioneer the tribal rhythmic temptation which has graced so many bands and still does. Do you offer yourself an inner smile every time you come across another proposition in band and song form obviously inspired by your legacy?

That’s very kind of you mate. I have been lucky to do what I love and what comes naturally.

Sadly missing out plenty of the other bands and projects you have been involved with, can we turn back to Cauldronated and what is ahead for the band over the coming months?

We’ve got another offering out soon…Ring of Khan, there’ll be gigs and the inevitable quest for world domination…All of it, such a laugh.

What about your solo sounds,; particularly thinking of the Barbarossa Beat two-track download release of last November which teased with a sound reminiscent of a Bow Wow Wow flavouring in songs like I Want Candy but took feet and energies into a new tantalising dance…More to come and any other irons in the fire musically for us to look forward to?

Yes, more to come with Barbarossa Beat, I love changes in direction, challenges. There are a few other things, collaborations popping up too.

My big thanks again Dave for your time.

An absolute pleasure Pete…Thanks you so much for your interest.

Mudsharks is available @ http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mud-Sharks-Dave-Barbarossa-ebook/dp/B00ULELOP0/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_10 and for more info regarding the book go to https://www.facebook.com/MudSharksNew/

https://www.facebook.com/dave.barbarossa   http://www.cauldronated.net/

The Buy This Thing EP from Cauldronated is available now @ https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/buy-this-thing/id914978407

Pete Ringmaster

The RingMaster Review 19/03/2015

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Listen to the best independent music and artists on The RingMaster Review Radio Show and The Bone Orchard on Reputation Radio @ http://reputationradio.yooco.org/

Cauldronated/ Dave.I.D / Sebastian Bartz at The Unicorn January 30th 2015

It was a night so cold that face stubble receded to search for warmth and involved a walk long enough to worry time zones, but all was forgotten at The Unicorn, Camden on the last Friday of January 2015, thanks to a trio of bands which left the senses reeling and emotions elevated. The night marked the return of the venue’s Post-Punk Club, and the dramatic union of what are three of the UK’s most uniquely original and inventive bands right now.

Anticipation was already a heady brew for Cauldronated, the new band of Dave Barbarossa of Adam and The Ants, Bow Wow Wow, Republica, Chicane… the list goes on…fame. An appetite sparked by his history and confirmed thanks to already unleashed tracks and videos. Equally there was a seriously pricked intrigue in the prospect of being introduced to two artists with a healthy buzz around them, Sebastian Bartz and Dave.I.D. It proved to be an adventure which threw assumptions and expectations to the floor and set about stirring up blood, energies, and emotions.

The night opened with the post punk voracity of Sebastian Bartz. As became the norm for the night, the quartet of musicians arrived as good as unannounced, as every song on the night from all bands (our only niggle), and swiftly unleashed a sonic tonic for the senses with immediate effect. Song after song was sculpted around a seriously potent rhythmic frame, with the drummer especially stealing attention in a couple of the tracks, including the closing treat from the band. To this guitar and keys added their often raw and always impressively toxic melodies as Sebastian prowled and sized up each song and audience member with a belligerent but endearing androgynous theatre. Fresh to the presence of the man, it is fair to say that he and the band impressed unreservedly, every second of sound and twist of lyrical spite accompanied with addictive antagonism and contagious craft. Equally there was a power and attitude expelled which often pushed tracks to their rawest limits, and caused ears to wilt under the sonic force offered though they only remained hungry for more, especially with tracks like She’s Gone which was amongst so many standing out, but the only one with a title known. Not letting a broken guitar string deter the onslaught of post punk imagination and intimidating devilry from songs and band, Sebastian Bartz powerfully proved why he has the reputation of being one of the really exciting propositions of the London live scene.

It is clear that the majority of the audience was there for one particular thing, to see Cauldronated, which left Dave I.D. who closed the night, staring at only a handful of certainly keen and attentive bodies. It was a shame as the solo musician captivated with his heavily atmospheric and soulful sounds. His hands were often a frantic movement spinning a web of musical invention with his varied equipment whilst his creative nature was a twitch of vocal angst and expression. There is a dark emotion to his industrial seeded music and sobering lyrics which challenges and transfixes simultaneously. Also there is an underlying anger which skilfully colours his music and on the night seemingly erupted with a flying drum stick, though if in frustration at the lack of bodies before him it was possibly understandable, his compelling set deserved, as his emotive sounds, more.

Splitting the two was Cauldronated with a performance which blew away man and night alike. As mentioned the newest project of Dave Barbarossa, the band took merely the initial tempting of opener iBossa to bind attention and imagination, never relinquishing it until the last beat and note of the demanded encore. On stage the band is driven by Dave’s still strikingly potent and inspirational rhythmic craft; in fact ‘still’ does him an injustice as much heard on the night left marks surpassing a lot of his legendary history in invention and sheer agility. In front of him stood the vocal, lyrical, and occasionally rhythmic drama that is Italian extrasolar poetess Eva Menon. The lady has a presence which forcibly lures attention yet is as organic and natural as it comes, well until she unleashes her lyrical tirade which just enthrals and sparks in ears and imagination. Eva has a stage scowl, a leering confrontation which is not forced but part of the whole impacting incitement that is Cauldronated yet also an underlying mischief which could not stop breaking out through smiles on the night, especially to the birthday wishes flung her way.

As said opening with the exceptional iBossa, which as all their songs sounds even more powerful and infectious live, there was the feeling that if they could straight away uncage a fan favourite there was bigger treats to come, and so it proved. Songs like Buy This Thing and In This World left bodies and emotions enslaved, Dave’s ridiculously creative and addictive beats turning feet and limbs into his own personal puppets whilst Eva has thoughts bound with her scythes and lashings of vocal and lyrical confrontation. Of course around this, binding their ingenious strikes are the adventurously melodic and creative sounds of David Harman, absent on stage but lighting up every song with imagination and worldly temptation through his recorded enterprise.

The band’s incredibly rousing set flew by in a blink, but every minute was a standout muscular and tenaciously seductive flirtation. The band’s bio call their sound punky, drum-centric techno, surely after such a stunning performance, it should be merely tagged as alchemy. As mentioned it seemed like the whole night was there for Cauldronated, the likes of Andy Dukey from London based band Top Buzzer and Johnny Summer, the head of the Reputation Radio Station, adding their enthusiastic moves to a seriously invigorated and healthy crowd.

Dave Barbarossa is no stranger to helping create and driving forward some important moments in the history of the British music scene, and he with Eva and David Harman could just be poised to do it again. Certainly with the equally stand-out performances of Sebastian Bartz and Dave.I.D backing them up, Cauldronated has given London an early pinnacle in its live scene for 2015.

http://www.cauldronated.net/

http://www.dave-i-d.com/

https://www.facebook.com/sebastianbartzmusic

RingMaster 04/02/2015

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Listen to the best independent music and artists on The RingMaster Review Radio Show and The Bone Orchard from http://www.thereputationlabel.today