ARCHIE BRONSON OUTFIT - Derdang Derdang

“We wanted a record that was groovy but hard”: that's the statement of intent from Mark Cleveland, drummer and lyricist of Archie Bronson Outfit, the English trio now on their second album, following the warmly received debut “Fur” in 2004. Trying to stay true to that promise, the band - which alongside Cleveland features Sam Windett (guitar and vocals) and Dorian Hobday (guitar and bass) - sifted through hours and hours of music written and played off the cuff, crafting a fairly varied record marked by Windett's voice, which, raw and distinctive, strongly recalls that of the great David Thomas.

It's not easy to pin down a clearly defined musical identity on this “Derdang Derdang”, where you can move from certain 70s rock sounds (the opening “Cherry Lips”) to the lopsided blues of “Cuckoo”, which recalls Pere Ubu, passing through the obsessive keyboards, effects and screams that in “Modern Lovers” hark back to Suicide.

Ultimately, though, what prevails is a well-crafted garage-rock, never banal and heavily cross-pollinated; sometimes with psychedelia, as in "How I Sang Dang", which has Velvet Underground-esque atmospheres, or "Rituals", which opens in a Morrison-like spirit before closing with a fine duel between Windett's screams and an ungainly free saxophone, all driven by Cleveland's pounding drums; other times the cross-pollination is with the new wave of Talking Heads ("Dead Funny") or with a more straightforward rock-blues ("Jab Jab").

The record has good songs and decent verve, but although some tracks are very successful and compelling ("Kink", "Dart For My Sweetheart"), after several listens it ends up feeling a bit tedious; the band's potential is there, but the album doesn't seem to do it justice.

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18/05/2006