Album Review: The Dirty Strangers - "Monkey Seed"

 

Staples of the '80s Soho sleaze scene along with the likes of the Dogs D'Amour, Marionette et al, the Dirty Strangers are something of a great lost band of the genre with their self-titled debut album from 1988 being an oft-overlooked classic. Although they split in the mid-'90s the group, led by Stones associate Alan Clayton, would reform in 2007 and have been a steady presence on the scene since with two albums released since then.

Monkey Seed, however, dates from just before the band got back together and three of them including Clayton were playing gigs around London under this name. In keeping with the power trio format they were using at the time, it's 17 slices of lean mean garage rock with the likes of Don't Come Easy, Knuckleduster and Good Good Loving coming on like a West London MC5.

A few of these numbers would subsequently resurface on the Strangers' subsequent comeback album, 2011's West 12 to Wittering including Liberty Smile, Gold Cortina and South of the River and it's interesting to hear them in a rawer more stripped-down form here. Although it's more of a work in progress demos collection than a full album, Monkey Seed is definitely an interesting document of this stage in the Dirty Strangers' career before they started using the name again and has all the enjoyable knockabout ramshackle charm we've come to expect from Clayton and his gang.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑🌑 (7/10)