Electric Six - 'Fire' (XL)
4/5
By: Matt Tomiak
'All rock and roll is homosexual,' declared the Manic Street Preachers in the formative stages of their career. On the basis of their outrageous, flamboyant and quite magnificent debut LP, Detroit's Electric Six, it would seem, concur wholeheartedly.
Storming into the nation's collective consciousness barely half a year ago with a number-2 hit - the bawdy mega-smash, 'Danger! High Voltage' - Electric Six were like nothing the UK top-40 had seen in recent times. A mysterious collage of brilliantly-pseudonymed, sharp-suited disco-rock showmen, this band were the perfect antidote to the bland, vapid acts that usually resided in the chart's upper reaches. A second single, the equally unrestrained 'Gay Bar' and a series of personnel changes (goodbye, Rock N' Roll Indian, hello Frank Lloyd Bonaventure) kept us all intrigued.
And as for the eleven other tracks on 'Fire', it's very much a case of more of the same, i.e. the fabulously camp frontman Dick Valentine screaming deliriously on the themes of fire, discos, sex and nuclear wars over a fusion of turbo-charged 'Saturday Night Fever' basslines and stadium-conquering guitar riffs. Of course, it's all utterly preposterous; any band that includes song-titles such as 'Naked Pictures (of Your Mother)' and 'Improper Dancing' on their records is hardly taking themselves seriously.
But unlike so many other bands, Electric Six realise the importance of performance. Self-analysis, introspection and heart-on-sleeve emoting are all very well, but sometimes the sound of pure, unhinged fun can be just as rewarding.
Artists in this article: Electric Six
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