DAN MELCHIOR'S BROKE REVIEW -- "BITTERNESS, SPITE, RAGE & SCORN"....And that about sums it up, doesn't it? Well, even better than THE HUNCHES (see below) is this new one from DAN MELCHIOR'S BROKE REVIEW, a pissed-off expat Englishman and his piledriving, minimalist garagy band. Who would have thought that this'd be their fourth album -- and here I was thinking this was some Billy Childish hanger-on & came in with some pretty low expectations. Au contraire! This is one fantastic disc. The guy's got this whiny, angry vocalizing that reminds me of Doc Dart from the Crucifucks or perhaps a PMS-ing Pete Shelley. The fourteen, all original songs, which start loose & raw from the kick-off "Hungry Ghost" & "You're My Wife" (excellent! best one on here!), mine a path through the best of 60s and 70s -- and even 80s -- snotty punk rock, while keeping it tied to a very simple, no-chord-wasted approach. You can tell at times that there's a love for pre-punk musics as well, as some screaming blues guitar creeps in as does some shambling folk-ish cottonpickin' ("Beast of the Field") -- even dabbling in a Phil Spector-style/girl group wall of sound on a couple of numbers. But mostly it's Melchior and his boys carrying a cargo full of hate. Another full-stop winner from a revitalizing In The Red Records.

posted by Jay H. at 10:31 AM