Trauma Magnet – Van Ruin (Crankinhaus Records)
This is a searing debut album from a high-energy Sydney band with roots in the Northern Beaches. The influences are obvious but you’d be a mug to pigeonhole it as the work of another Radio Birdman rip-off (and let’s face it - Sydney’s had more than a few.) There’s depth to the songwriting on “Trauma Magnet”, a dash of pop and a fluid strength to the playing that belies the band being around for only about a year.
It would be a shock if there wasn’t a passing resemblance to the New Christs in songs like the full-throttle “Bury Me”, soaring video-single “Better Now” and ever-so country-tinged driving tune “Chrissie”. Big Al Creed was a member of one of that band’s most enduring line-ups and his distinctive tone and high-tensile guitar solos are all over “Trauma Magnet”. His clear-eyed production also scores a bullseye.
It’s the songwriting of the band’s namesake Phil Van Rooyen that really sets Van Ruin apart. A drug counsellor by day, his stories of death, addiction and (yes, despite the album title) redemption, deliver in spades.
Speaking of uplifting, “Breaks My Heart” (not the Birdman song) is the record’s ray of sunshine, rolling along on the back of a sunny melody. As well as some handy guitar interplay, Phil delivers some outstanding vocal, here and throughout, with able assists from Big Al and everywhere drummer Stu Wilson (New Christs, Lime Spiders, Chris Masuak’s Dog Soldier.)
The full-some basslines of Andy Newman (The Visitors, Deniz Tek Group, ME262. The Decline of the Reptiles) fill all the right spaces and he provides keyboard embellishments, most notably on the powerful “Jump Right In” and “Rubber Hits The Road”.
If the “Jails, Death & Institutions” EP was an attention-getting kick-off, “Trama Magnet” ups the ante - on all fronts. Half-a-dozen plays in, it’s hard to nail favourites, but the expansive mid-tempo closer “Rubber Hits The Road” is one of them with its wistful sense of resignation.
The forthright “Bury Me” is another contender – especially when the singer summons the lead-break. The bluesy licks on “Acid Rain” hit just like a rainstorm and there’s a similar vibe to the guitars on “Subcutaneous Blues”.
If you grew up in the Sydney scene of the 1980s or you wish you did, this record is an essential listen.
The Detroit tag was always more an attitude than the name of a genre and Van Ruin shows as much. The band’s starting a French tour as these words are written, and anyone with an ear for Real Rock and Roll from that part of the world can consider themselves admonished if they don’t get out to see them.
