October 8, 2021

Voodoo Rhythm Label Compilation Vol 5: Album Review

Voodoo Rhythm Label Compilation Vol 5: Various Artists and Labels

Beat Zeller is a Swiss Rock’n’Roll fanatic. The founder and manic driving force behind Voodoo Rhythm Records. Performs as one-man-band, Reverend Beat-Man as well as other group projects. His specialty is mutant Garage Psychobilly Gospel Blues, by his own admission.

Cult music that dives into the steamy swamp that the Cramps wallowed in. Inspirational trash culture. A black sense of humour is vital. The easily offended can stop here. Those among us who crave Gun Club’s Fire of Love, Panther Burns, Alex Chilton, Mud Boy and the Neutrons, Charley Patton. This is bringing it all back home

Lux Interior and Poison Ivy may or may not have helped curate a similar American compilation series called Born Bad- Music That Inspired the Cramps. Many obscure and weird classics. A lot of Sixties Garage and a heart-felt homage to American Hero Sam Phillips and the legendary Sun Studios.
This is the Middle European version and does its best to match the originators. The address in Switzerland is Wankdorffeldstrasse 92, 3014 Bern. It would have to be.

Fifteen tracks of blistering fury or stone-cold cool. Let’s check out some highlights.

Smell My Tongue. Monsters. An anthem to open the show. Fast one-chord rhythm riff and a chant of the title. Simple and brutal but effective. Zeller also fronts this band.

Crash and Burn. Bad Mojo’s. Yer Hardcore Punk and the classic Los Angeles sound of the late Seventies like Black Flag. Fast as lightning Rockabilly riffing guitar, with some chainsaw finishing it off.

I Want You. Destination Lonely. The guitars slow down to a buzz-saw. Plenty of Bryan Gregory fuzz-tone dissonance overlaid. In remembrance of the Alex Chilton-produced early Cramps.

No Wake Up. Sloks. No idea what that name means but these guys are from Torino in Italy, near the Swiss border. Great sixties Garage Punk and the singer sneers like the Shadows of Knight. A primal stomp beat and the guitar sounds like a steel- cutting blade. The Bo Diddley sound is deep in the mix.

That’s four to get the adrenaline and endorphins coursing through your body.

Black Metal. Reverend Beat-Man and Isobel Garcia. A change of pace and the music dives back into earlier roots. Tribal beats and the incantatory voice of a dark preacher. Satan records the first note/ Chaos and hell/ Fast melting steel/ Black metal. We are in the Fifties and the times of the October Missile Crisis. Nuclear scream/ Warheads are ready to fight. The beat of early Surf music pins this one. In a curious way it echoes Dylan’s Masters of War. Not nearly as solemn.

Baby OK. Isobel Carcia. Continues the tribal beat and strips the music back to minimalist. A slow shuffle with an off-kilter boogie piano. A heart beat rhythm and eventually you will notice the furious maracas.

Too Good to be Blue. Trixie and the Train Wrecks. Sixties Garage Rock’n’Roll but with a dirty blues harp added in. More Paul Butterfield than Little Walter.

Acme in the Afternoon. Degurutieri. A strange one and quite addictive. A Tom Waits-style gravelly affected voice. Jazz mixed with the Blues of the Twenties. A muted trumpet with an acoustic bass leading. The language seems to be a blend of Latin American and English. The guy is Japanese. Music from a cool smoky club in Harlem.

Lubrication. The Sex Organs. Starts off sounding like a Stooges drone with snarling vocals. Lubricate the nation/ Masturbation/ Masturbate the nation/ Penetration/ We’re gonna penetrate the nation/ Lubricate, masturbate, penetrate. At the bridge the guitars rev up and get messy. Ends with a comedy routine out of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. Like walking into an adult sex toy shop.

Learn to Lose. Roy and the Devil’s Motorcycle. Metal drone music from Link Wray merging with Suicide. Mildly drunk slurred vocals. Angular guitar riffs fire off in Magic Band fashion. Held together by a Rockabilly rhythm riff. Finishes off with 30 seconds of beautiful melody.

Drug Me. E.T. Explore Me. A great one-chord rhythmic hook. Aims to reduce the monster Sister Ray drone riff into three minutes. The trash organ of 96 Tears by ? and the Mysterians winds through this.

Tell Me. Honshu Wolves. Surf music with ringing guitars. A great Pop Punk vocal from Maryanne Shewolf. The song builds in drama and passion into Western open prairie music, and seems to be inspired by Tarantino’s Kill Bill soundtrack.

Mean Blue Spirit. The Dead Brothers. The album ends in New Orleans, home to Jazz and Blues and Voodoo. A funereal march. A ukulele, Gypsy violin and a soft tuba. Old time vocals with a mournful male chorus. Sinners with their eyelashes dripping in blood.

Obsessive cult Rock’n’Roll. And the roots of American music stretching back in time. There has always been a large supportive following in Europe since the advent of the Jazz Age.