Album Review:  A. Swayze & The Ghosts, Paid Salvation  (Sunset Pig Records)

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Tasmanian newbies A. Swayze & The Ghosts are a fresh revival of Punk. An act of resurrection in the spirit of the original artists. Irreverent and full of humour whilst giving their own generation a few swift kicks in the head and arse.

Hail from Hobart. Not really a breeding ground for any scene, the young guys have said. This was recorded in Melbourne by Dean Tuza. Sounds as you would expect to hear them live. Recorded in three days in keeping with tradition.

Andrew Swayze is the dynamo singer. Hendrick Wipprecht guitar, Zachary Blain drums and Ben Sims bass guitar. Two of those guys had fathers who had picked out their instruments at birth.

It’s Not Alright opens with a guitar arpeggio which threatens like Pretty Vacant. It’s a rhythmic assault which propels the song relentlessly, while Swayze sings about girls who are not about to be passive.

Suddenly also celebrates girls. I am a girl and I love the world yes I do/ Are you with me too. A Clash style Punk Reggae opening riff, and the sprung rhythms keep coming. The singer has a fine voice and does sound like Joey Ramone crossed with some of the mania of Lux Interior.

With Nothing Left To Do they wind into with a Buzzcocks opening drone. The guitars carry this one through with great rhythmic riffs. Anthemic lyrics.

Connect To Consume is primal English Punk. Energy like a coiled spring as the music fires off with firecracker pops. Andrew has said they wants to sing about important topical subjects. This one name checks Face Book, Instagram, Snap Chat.

The band is well-drilled and disciplined. With the short recording time, I feel this is their live set as you would hear it now, if we were allowed to. Just like the Ramones on their debut.

Marigold and Paid Salvation ramp up the speed and start to body slam you like the early Black Flag. Both have fast Rockabilly style riffs. Salvation throws out shards of lyrics. God is dead/ Rise above/Raise the dead/ The sins of the blue blood. More subliminal messages than Zeppelin.

Mess of Me then changes pace. Power Pop and it reveals the spirit of the original Punk impulse. It was the Sound of the Suburbs and this is a homage to the Members. Huge in New Zealand and Australia, and their influence returns forty years later.

I need to pay back the loan/ Daddy’s got some scheme. Great sense of humour.

Rich and News switch things up again with rhythms closer to the Techno dance of New Order. Bass and drums drive the engine with faint echoes of Disco. Guitar adds the squalls and maelstrom.

I wanna be rich/ I gotta be rich/ I wanna be powerful. Lyrics are ironic, not subtle at all. But there is a finely honed rage here. First address your own useless generation, as the Sex Pistols demonstrated in their original explosion.

Beaches slams back again. Anger about politics, environment and pollution. Beaches sound like Bitches. The fast guitars and angry vocals just hold together and move into minimalist speed-metal territory.

Cancer has a great bass guitar which takes the lead. Builds in energy to a peak. Then settles back to a rhythm riff and We’re gonna hold our hearts and fuck all night.

Evil Eyes is great Power-Pop and harks back to classic American Sixties Garage Rock. Primal Rock’n’Roll. Psycho fashion/ It’s not your fault. The Sonics directly. But also, the Rolling Stones when they were laying down the blueprint for Garage with Get Off My Cloud and She Said Yeah.

A terrific debut which touches many bases, and shows a mastery of the diversity of the original Punk Moment. Fury and great humour. Now all we need is a sweaty armpit of a venue to work out all this energy.

Rev Orange Peel            

        

        

Rev Orange Peel
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