Description
The Baron Four—the UK’s premier garage/beat exponents—smash into 2017 with their second long-player, Silvaticus, unleashed onto an unsuspecting public by Get Hip–the only label with balls big enough to take the band on!
With one LP and four single releases already under their belts, the band push forward with their strongest release to date, both in terms of songs and recorded sound. All the recognizable key elements are here: fevered vocals topping off clanging guitars stewed in reverb, rumbling bass and tumultuous drums. Tracked (as usual) at State Records’ custom-built 8-track recording facility in glorious mono, these 12 tracks demonstrate the band’s ability to combine gritty R&B-based material with garage-punk raunch, capturing at least some of their raw, live, chaotic energy onto tape.
Ten new, original songs by singer/bassist Mike Whittaker jostle for space with two covers: the recently unearthed “Wild Angel” by James Bond & The Agents from 1967, and a radical reworking of the Bo Diddley classic “I Can Tell,” featuring relative newcomer CK Smith on some of the dirtiest blues harp you’re likely to hear this year! Elsewhere, Mr. Smith lays down some killer guitar parts, deft and assured, with just the right amount of grit, complementing fellow axeman Joe Eakins’ relentless rhythm. There’s even a 12-string in there!!
Hear the relentless urgency of opener “It’s Alright”; the measured, syncopated stomp of “I’ll Be With You”; the Merseybeat-on-bad-gear rush of “Tear My Heart”; the plaintive minor-key reflection of album closer “How You Want To Be”; the distorted insanity of “Walking Out”, and the melodic, heartfelt “I Don’t Mind.” They’re all there–and that’s only half the album!
