Dead 60s - 'Riot Radio' (Deltasonic)
4/5
By: Lauren Gallagher
Frightful, but funk has been an omnipresent feature of much of the most popular alt of 2003-4 (well, the basslines of which at least; examine !!!, Franz, Modest Mouse, The Departure, etc). And this year birthed some incredible four-string fumblings, didn't it? (Interpol's second album, anyone?) But instead of just a 'touch' of funk, Liverpool's fairly-titled Dead 60's have decided to serve up a whoppingly in your face bass mess that cross-meshes ska, reggae, punk, funk, and, somehow, electro. Comparisons to The Clash are inevitable (they are the band's numero uno influence, after all), but an electrocrash throb keeps 'Riot Radio' from being merely retro.
A bit of skahopping is inevitable, and although 'Riot Radio' is too repetitive to cause such cursory frivolity as its title suggests, it remains distinct from its peers in its own purity of bass reverence, and astute simplicity in approach. Although the band's biography claims they are 'not interested in proper songwriting - at least not in the conventional sense,' The Dead 60's have written a proper song, whose stripped-down basis is uncommonly unconventional for '04. No wonder we're impressed.
Artists in this article: Dead 60s
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