Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (BRMC) are back with an eighth addition to their impressive catalogue with the Nick Launay produced Wrong Creatures. It’s five years since we’ve heard new music from the Los Angeles three-piece rock n rollers. Sit back, let us hear what Peter Hayes, Robert Levon and Leah Shapiro have created for old and new fans alike.
DFF opens Wrong Creatures with a swirling uncomfortable noise that leads into Spook, a swagger fuelled beat of pleasure. King of Bones bleeds attitude with the era they formed still in their veins. The record changes to a more atmospheric vibe with Haunt, as Haunt and next track Echo gives a U2 taste in the mouth. Ninth Configuration cradles your weary self, a beautiful put together tune, a track where their guitar gently weeps. Leah Shapiro’s beat on Question of Faith has this mind of mine running to different spaces of the brain, and the section of brain believes Leah’s beat is perfect for Michael Myers’ Halloween, when he appears from behind the hedge. Even though there’s a horror connotation, it’s not heavy but certainly unhinged, its brooding and a highlight for me.
BRMC Little Thing Gone Wild is exceptional, a powerhouse of a track with distorted vocals, heavy riffs and a harmonica, I love a harmonica. This tune is full on sneering, don’t mess with us rock n roll. TUNE. Snapped out of the mesmerising with a new sound belonging to Circus Bazooka, an intro of a circus proportion. The feel and sound felt there are certain influences from The Beatles, but most tunes can be connected to those guys. The circus element could be Insane Clown Posse.
Wrong Creatures has dark melodies, uneasy atmospheric sounds with beats that may cause nightmares. Beauty is in these tunes, it’s rock n roll from a group of musicians who’ve been treading the boards for nigh on twenty years. Final track is a calmer, a relaxer takes the edge off a situation, All Rise.
A polished rock record. Enjoy.