Punk-Blues! What sort of a bastard love child is that? Surprisingly, it’s a really promising one judging by ILCK’s third album. Vocalist Chet "the Cheetah" Weise is joined by drummer Toko The Drifter and new recruit keyboardist Jeff Goodwin which has given the sound a much deeper resonance in the Church of South.When the tracks feature the Hammond, such as ‘Airliner’ and ‘Blues’, The Doors’ influence seems strong but to be fair an album of Punk-Blues absorbs a fair few influences. There’s shades of the old R’n’B Rolling Stones (the “ohh ooohh†of ‘Sympathy For The Devil’ on ‘Revolution Summer’) plus the energy of The Stooges (‘Boom Boom’). ‘Wide As The Sky’ is going to be the single and it’s not an obvious choice, try ‘Sonic Angel’ instead or the opener ‘Turn On The Panther’. It’s not all thrash as ‘Stitched In Sin’ is their Robert Johnson moment and the longest track, ‘Lights Down Low’ (at 3m51s) is well mellow. In all, the 11 tracks are over all too quick in a mere 30 minutes (seems to be a current trend) finishing with the spiritual acappella, ‘No More My Lord’.
Their press says the music evokes the gods, Hound Dog Taylor, Jerry Lee Lewis (the original killer, and the band's namesake), John Lee Hooker, the Gun Club, Blue Cheer, the MC5, and the improvisation of jazzmen Sun Ra and John Coltrane. This reviewer puts them somewhere between The Features and Metro Riots with a touch of Test-Icicles. And what a place to be? This is a ballsy CD and hopefully a live act to match.
