(Self-released 2017)
Get Up And Get Out
Motorbike Rider
Mr Saint
Ghost Town
Holywell Dene
Cause I Do
Cat Feet
Jenny Won't Play No More
Phantom Lady
Slaphouse
One Foot In The Grave
Mohawk
For a few years now there has been a video by an ensemble called
Sinful which was recorded for UK TV back in 1983 on a programme called The Works which has garnered much interest from the psycho/neo community. It regularly pops up on social media and there was always a certain mystery surrounding the band. Interest was also piqued owing to the fact that Simon Badminton who later went on to form
Spook And The Ghouls was the slap bassist. In 2012 an album of demo material appeared on the band's Reverbnation page which only added to the burgeoning interest surrounding the band. I loved those demo recordings, and then, out of the blue a few months ago I see a post by a guy called Peter Turner on one of the Facebook psycho/neo group pages advertising the release of an album by Saint Dom And The Sinful. The penny didn't drop for a few minutes until I had a listen to the samples he posted. I immediately wrote to Peter who as it transpires is now the slap bassist for Sinful...now known as Saint Dom And The Sinful and we had a chat back and forth. He then put me in contact with Saint Dom himself, Dominic Malia, frontman and lyricist extraordinaire, the CD was purchased (though the cheap bastard even charged me the 25p for the envelope), the wait for the postman began, and then it dropped on my plush red carpet. The self-released gem, much to my surprise, is no hastily put together package as is the way sometimes with self-released stuff. This thing comes with a 16 page booklet and the paper is so thick that it barely fits in the jewel case. Now I heard the samples of course as I mentioned before, but I also had that 2012 demo and loved the raw energy of it. Sometimes when songs are taken into a studio and mixed/engineered properly all that magic can be lost. That raw energy can become flat and banal. From the opening few chords on this album I knew this was not going to be the case. Thank fuck! It becomes even more evident when Dom's vocals kick in that this is neo rockabilly with power. This man has some pipes. All the songs from the aforementioned demos are here, there are 12 songs in total, all self-penned and not one of them is shite! This a most unusual occurrence. I rarely, if ever, like every song on an album. This release is in a league of its own when it comes to quality song writing. Dom's singing also keeps my finger away from clicking
next on my player. He has an infectious voice! Add to that the acoustic resonance of the slap bass and the crunch of the snare, the clean, sometimes heal-palmed guitar and it's a recipe for neo rockabilly purity. I'm glad someone gave Dom that well-deserved kick up the arse to get a band together and finally get these songs properly released for the baying audience he probably didn't even know he had. You can buy the CD directly from the band from their Facebook page and it's on all the major digital download/streaming sites.
The O'Prez
