CD REVIEW: SMOKEY BASTARD – Back To The Drawing Board

Shane | 2 February 2016 | Reply

CD REVIEW: SMOKEY BASTARD – Back To The Drawing Board
Bomber Music
13 November, 2015
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
8/10

Who knows how Smokey Bastard developed their musical mission statement. Was it the result of a band room jam, their weird and wonderful influences all mutating into this mad, colourful explosion of sound? Or did they sit down over pints and an absinthe drip and design a musical palette like they might plan a woodworking project?

I have no idea, but the end result is glorious, crazy, all over the place and perfectly appropriate – not to mention absolutely indefinable.

Let’s put it like this: take a base stock of celt rock a la The Pogues. Mix in the Eastern European circus mayhem of Gogol Bordello, and a large spoonful of the discordant and shouty belligerence of System Of A Down.

It’s when they really stretch out into non-traditional rock arrangements that they’re at their best: Opener Archipeligo is as catchy as punk or rock gets: as accordions and fiddles clamour for attention all around, the sea shanty feel of this track will see you with a pint in your hand and a yo ho ho in your throat before you know what’s happening; Baba Yaga is a horror story of a boogie man which is, frankly, terrifying, somehow lent a gothic edge by the use of a fiercely Eastern European rhythm and instrumentation.

Elsewhere, Alcobatical is an excellent title for a more by-the-numbers punky rocker, while ironically Jester is less madcap than the rest of the album. But just when you think you’ve got the measure of the Smokey Bastards they throw us another curve ball: a heavy rocking band singing an acapella shanty (South Australia) – and you can’t get more punk than that!