Deep Elm are championing The Lions Rampant, putting out this, their new effort, as well as their first two EPs at the same time. Its 60s garage stuff – the press release lazily likening the band to the White Stripes, The Kinks and The Black Keys, but it’s a bit more bluesy than at least the later two of those bands. Everything about this band screams a desire to recreate Austin Powers style 1960s Carnaby Street, right down to the distorted vocals that are intended to sound like they’ve been recorded by some archaic, barely working microphone.
The tunes have a bit of bite to them, which is absolutely crucial with stuff like this. You can pretty much visualize the bad side sweep haircuts flying all over the place when they are playing. More than anything, this reminds me of The International Noise Conspiracy – it even sounds a little bit like Dennis is doing the vocals. The outrageous amount of hammond organ is all there too. Lead track ‘Lights On’ is probably the most catchy track on offer, but they seem to have a formula and stick with it, so if you like it, you will probably love it. For me, it straddles the line of just being a bit too relentlessly upbeat the whole time – you yearn for a sultry breakdown or something, but each to their own.
Mike