Wild Rumpus, Musical Blaze-Up – review
Wild Rumpus is a musical meeting-of-minds between Gary Lucus (legendary guitarist from Captain Beefheart) and Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy, aka DJ Collen, and their first full album release ‘Musical Blaze-Up’ is different to say to least.
Together Lucas and DJ Cosmo take you on a sonic, psychedelic road trip through reggae, rock, country, electronica, blues, house, surf, dub, disco and beyond – and boy, it is one wild ride.
Joined by an array of eclectic talent, the album features collaborations as diverse as the musical styles it traverses with input from the likes of Beardyman, Kurt Wagner, Black Steel, Emily Breeze, Mr Hermano/Sao Benitez, Ben Mitchell, Manasseh and Asian Dub Foundation.
The lead single on the album is most certainly a winner, ‘Rock the Joint’ is a boot-tappin electric explosion of awesome. Feel-good country riffs mixed seamlessly with electronica and dub take the song from a simple country hoedown to a full-blown cosmic hootenanny. Lyrical legend Berdyman takes the reigns and makes this track one for sunshine, friends and slightly inebriated fun.
For the most part, the rest of the album has an overwhelming feeling of high energy, its auditory ecstasy sprinkled with some ear-bending musical madness to get you moving. However, the mixing of such a broad array of genres will mean that it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but that’s not a discredit to the album. In fact, it’s been designed that way; those who sway towards it are going to absolutely love it! They’ll strap on their boots and join the psychedelic rodeo.
As Lucas says “everybody is so fucking polite. I’m just into making rude noises.” And to that we say ye-fucking-ha!
Wild Rumpus review by Katherine Helps. ‘Musical Blaze-Up’ is released on May 27th.
