Sunday, September 27, 2015

Thee Flanders "Graverobbing 2"

(Halb 7 Records 2015)


Intro (Featuring Tom Toxic)
Enjoy The Silence
You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) (Featuring Bela B)
Dein Vampyr (Featuring Brigitte Handley)
Red Light Spells Danger
Pet Sematary (Featuring Teddy Taste)
Ich Brauch Keinen Grund
Comeback And Stay
She Bop (Featuring Ramon Sitoci)
Don't You Want Me (Featuring Pattsy)
Dirty Lies
Junk
Deja Vu
Outro (Featuring Achim Mentzel)

It's been 8 years since Thee Flanders unleashed their first instalment of against-the-grain psychobilly covers under the guise of their 2007 Graverobbing album on Halb 7 Records. That album was good. This one is great. In the 8 years between that album and this one, it's immediately obvious that the boys have really honed their skills for arranging, or in this case rearranging songs and in the words of Louis Walsh..."making them their own". (I will NEVER reference Louis Walsh in a review EVER again. I apologise profusely). It could have been all too easy for the band to go in to the studio and just do psycho renditions of songs known to the mainstream by speeding them up and applying some sore throat vocals. Naturally the Flanderesque versions are going to have a lot more balls and attitude than the originals...this is a psychobilly band after all...but it's balls and attitude with a gamut of great ideas and recording techniques. All the songs have been completely re-imagined by the band with stellar results. (Speaking of stellar, there's a stellar line up of guests on this album too as you can see from the song titles above). The album was recorded by Teddy Taste and mixed by Ramon Sitoci and fuck me pink the sounds they got from Thee Flanders are nothing short of astounding. For example the sound of the snare on some of the songs is really catchy. It's not too often you'll hear of a snare drum being catchy but such is the production quirks to be heard all over of this album. You'll just have to buy it and listen to it to know what I'm talking about. That's another atypical trait of this album. If you actually listen you pick up on all sorts of different things going on in the songs with each additional play. Thanks Thee Flanders for the early Christmas present. To sum up, I fuckin' love this album because...it's great...and I'm great...and I'm always right! And that's all that counts!!
The O'Prez