JEREMY IRONS & THE RATGANG MALIBUS (Bloom) CD
Behind the strange band name hides one of the best 1960's/1970's retro rock bands of current times. Instead of burying the listener under a wall of heavy fuzzy riffs, Sweden's JEREMY IRONS & THE RATGANG MALIBUS place greater value on well elaborated arrangements, which results in eight tasteful songs. There is not much heaviness, but plenty of soul and a little psychedelic. But rock 'n' roll forms the basis of their sound and there are always some moments which arouses memories of Rolling Stones ('Tales Of The Future') and Led Zeppelin ('Golden Hours').
Where necessary, they stretch the songs to the ten-minute mark, but that does not mean that they lose the 'red thread'. In fact, it's quite the opposite. A good example for this is the second track 'Skin Deep'. With a very atmospheric rise of tension, which also sounds etherial, this song starts off with some nice guitar play and develops more and more to a wonderful eargasm. Here too, Karl Apelmos shows impressively that he is a gifted vocalist and to be honest, 'Bloom' would have been only half as good without him.
I also like the diversity and distinctive individuality of their sound. You could feel that JEREMY IRONS & THE RATGANG MALIBUS do not try to curry favour. And luckily their craftsmanship allows them to to turn their sonic visions into a reality. The entire band seemed to really coalesce into a tight and intuative unit and leave you with the impression that they are playing together for more than two decades. But 'Bloom' is their second album and not their fifth. Once again, Transubstans Records have discovered a great band, which convinced me with their eclectic and passionate mix of rock 'n' roll, high energy rock, soul and psychedelic. Buy it, you will be glad that you did.
(KK)