Album Review: The Amplifier Heads - "Saturnaliens"

 

Another signing to Rum Bar records, the Amplifier Heads include at least one off-duty member of power-pop labelmates the Peppermint Kicks whose album we reviewed on here a couple of months back but are a slightly different proposition soundwise, falling right into the glam rock revival with a sci-fi twist on it. It certainly seems to me as though these guys might just have had a few Jobriath and Brett Smiley records in their collections when growing up along with the mandatory copy of Ziggy Stardust. Indeed, there's a song on here, the stomping Sweet-style Glamorama which sees them reeling off a list of their influences.

There's a heavy New York Dolls influence here as well on tracks like Earth Girls On The Loose and Rock 'n' Roll Anaesthesia with the strutting rhythms and David Johansen style vocals. For some reason, Candi Divine reminds me a bit of the old Terrorvision number Ships That Sink as well and the Sweet influence returns on the Blockbuster style pounding drums of Batshit Crazy. It's not quite all killer no filler and there's a few tunes that kind of come and go without really stamping themselves in your head but Saturnaliens definitely has far more good than bad in here. The epic five minute morning-after lament of The Amp That Lost Its Head even starts off all Rock 'n' Roll Suicide acoustic before kicking the guitar and drums in to good effect as it turns into a Mott the Hoople style stomper.

They may not quite be in the same league as Faz Waltz or Velvet Insane but the Amplifier Heads are certainly a worthy addition to the growing nu-glam movement. The controls may well be shamelessly set to 1973 on this one but, as Bowie himself would surely have told you, there's nothing wrong with being a musical magpie as long as you treat your influences with respect while adding your own stamp to them and make no mistake, these guys definitely do.

Bandcamp Link

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑🌑 (7/10)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A brief return from the dead...

Image
  Yup, we're back. Don't all get excited at once. I’d been toying with the idea of doing an end of year list again this year and after a lot of umming and aahing eventually decided to go for it. As with last year, inevitably there were bumps along the way. As of the start of December, I thought this list would be around 40 albums but inevitably reading other people’s lists pointed me towards a bunch of stuff that had passed me by earlier in the year. Plus of course there’s always a few teasing buggers who put stuff out at the last possible moment. So 40 became 50 which became 60 which finally became 70. You lucky people. Actually though, reading through this list, the main thing that strikes me is that I think this might be the most musically varied end of year list that Nite Songs has ever done. From gentle acoustics through acclaimed indie veterans to punk thrash and good old fashioned scuzzy rock ‘n’ roll via some decidedly unexpected diversions (industrial folk music? Check...
Read more

Garbage Days Revisited #90: Soho Roses - "The Third And Final Insult" (1989)

Image
  "If you won't love me then I'll find someone who will!"  - Soho Roses  - So Alone The Soho Roses were a classic case of right band, wrong time. If they'd broken on to the scene in the last few years then they'd have had a ready made audience on the 21st century power pop scene and probably be regulars at Some Weird Sin and similar club nights in the Smoke. The reality? They broke through towards the tail end of the '80s and got lumped in with the dying embers of the Soho glam scene, leaving behind one sadly underappreciated album and a few EP's before self-combusting. In a way, I sort of see the Roses as a British version of Enuff Z'Nuff. Not so much in terms of their sound but more of the fact that they were a group crowbarred in with glam who weren't really a natural fit there and kind of paid the price for it - I've always thought Enuff Z'Nuff sounded more like a Britpop band with flashbomb guitars than a hair metal band. Oh sure, ...
Read more

Album Review: The Fades - "Night Terrors"

Image
  Hailing from South London, the Fades are gaining a reputation of one of the premier garage rock bands in the capital these days and, as with a few albums we've reviewed in these webpages of late, Night Terrors  was written during the lockdown as it was a recurring feature of life for the band's frontman Dave during the lockdown. As befits its title and subject matter, Night Terrors  is an off-kilter effort which might take a few listens to get into but rewards those who persevere with it. Certainly, the discordant vocals and guitars often give the impression of the whole operation being on the verge of collapse on the likes of The Pessimist  and Known It All Along  while Lost My Job  goes into XTC/Nightingales style post-punk territory. However, the likes of People In General  show that they can rein the weirdness in and build up an intriguing multi-part epic which starts off as tuneful new wave before drifting into a nightmarish state-of-the-nation ...
Read more