Dapto Dogs – Dapto Dogs (Self-released)
Saw this outfit's first gig a few weeks back and they flipped everyone out. Their blend of early-mid-'70s re-discovering rock and glorious sonic romance has to be encountered to be believed. This is Tom Redwood's band when he's not being Troubadour Tom Redwood (and he's on guitar and vocals) and it's a four-track EP.
“Epic Fantastiche” was the gig opener (did I tell you I cannot wait to see this lot again?) and had everyone grooving from the get-go. On first listen, I thought: heavy fuckin' Can, krautrock, the motorik and the road goes on from here. The motorik you can, I think, mostly ascribe to Mike Wilczek, who has a style similar to the mighty Jaki Liebezeit. Anna Mobley's bass (she's well-known here fin Adelaide for her stalwart playing in Toxic Shock) is getting on for a stoner groove too (she did the artwork too).
“Epic Fantastiche” is an unfashionable but utterly fucking compelling 10-minutes and you don't get Tom's vocal until half-way in. The EP is worth buying for this song alone, the directions it rotates and shifts into is just bloody wonderful. Heavy guitar? Far, far heavier than (say) Tom Verlaine - but what would you expect from the two guitarists (Tom and AJ Morley) who used to be in Leather Messiah?
Tom's talent, ingenuity and ability is, as far as I'm concerned, fucking unassailable. I loved Leather Messiah (even if the sods never got a copy of their CD to me, the swines), but in some ways the Daptos are a better creature. I did hear one twat describe them as “stoner rock”, but most specimens of that ilk I find fucking dull.
“Get It Alone” is a different vibe, almost (for me) recalling the Laughing Clowns while sounding not a lot like them; or even the Velvet Underground from 1969.
“The Mole'”- jesus, we've just found ourselves in SoCal in 1983, and this is the Meat Puppets minus the chirpy whistling. Full-bore, brutal chopping with a tune that lightens your heart.
Now,“Do What You Want” closes with a measured, heavy slushily romantic stomp. Every song on here is dead groovy, each is very different, and “Do What You Want” is both romantic and dangerous, dumb and lovely, smart and ugly. Slow? Deadly. Satirical? Pffft, I'll leave that to you...
At around 27 minutes Daptos make one of the most... beyond magnificent ... impacts I've heard in years.
Hats off to the engineer and masterer : Tom Spall. Nice clean, vivid sound, mate.
What do you do now? Hustle to Canberra, spray paint “Daptos rule” on Parliament House (not forgetting to fire up a few prams while you're at it, it's cold in Canberra in winter).
The Daptos are another Adelaide band to bring to your town.
Get the downloads here or visit Mr V Records.
