Tales From Bad Drip – Bad Drip (Outtspace Records)
From out of Sydney’s Inner-West comes Bad Drip and they’re quite the thing if you’re partial to heavy blues jams. “Tales From Bad Drip” is only four songs but the vinyl-only EP packs plenty of punch.
The Inner-West Delta. It’s where Surry Hills’ survivors settled when gentrification pushed the inner-city rents up and the dole dried up. Some of them even got mortgages and have spawned kids. It’s a funny place, full of contradictions and probably ripe for urban renewal itself, but it’s also where most of Sydney’s music now lives.
A lot of those Inner-West bands sound like fey indie rock or hip slacker drivel with no songs. If the cliche is reality, Bad Drip is refreshingly atypical. A quartet that’s only been around two years, this is their first physical release. Of course, it’s on vinyl.
“Black Raw” has an undertow of pliable bass-lines push-pulling against nagging guitar figures with Courtney Delaney’s rich vocal rising over the top. The ethereal opening of “Federale” quickly shifts into a rock-hard boogie that stretches before sharply applying the brakes.
The band labels itself a “boogie woogie acid western groove machine” and that’s no more evident than on “Creature Preature” where greasy harmonica duels with glistening guitar and an early ZZ Top feel. Lots of rise-and-fall dynamics on this one and Delaney’s vocal gets to stretch out over its five-plus minutes.
“Roadhouse” ups the ante in rawness and layers some vamping keys behind the trademark bluesy guitar squawl, while Bonnie Blaxall nails down the beat.
Steven W. Schouten (recording and mixing) and the ubiquitous Mikey Young (mastering) have rendered a clear-headed, unadorned sound that suits the material. Buy a digital copy here or the black vinyl thingie here.
