Released late last year in Canada and the US, Hot Hot Heat's superb debut, Make Up the Breakdown was recently released in Europe, where the combo has just begun wooing gig goers from London to Berlin.
Oozing pure retro-70s new wave and blending simplistic guitar riffs with an abrasive edge, the combo's debut is a great earful. From the opener, the jerky Wire-like Naked in the City Again, through to the final cut, the slow meandering piano-driven Joe Jackson-ish Cairo, Hot Hot Heat are a band on fire.
The Libertines
Up the Bracket
Rough Trade
The UK's alternative music scene got a bit of a wake-up call last year after colonial upstarts and Swedes proved that the once cutting edge garage scene was sorely lacking in both talent and originality. Four blokes from the colorful North London district of Bethnal Green who go by the name of The Libertines, however, were well aware of this sad fact and planned a counter attack.
With the help of ex-Clash guitarist and studio-guru, Mick Jones, the four-some set about creating a bouncy alt-pop laden recipe for success in the form of the debut, Up the Bracket, which was released last month.
English lads with cockney accents they might be, but The Libertines main influences are pure Americana. The album's tunes are full of bouncy and aggressive hooks lifted straight out of the MC5, Stooges and Velvet Underground books of music.
The addition of early Elvis Costello and the Attractions vibes, along with the unmistakable London intonation, however, ensure that there's something typically English about the whole affair.
To Jones' credit he's not turned The Libertines into a latter-day Clash and nor has he given the album the polish of Big Audio Dynamite. Instead he's left the material in a rough and ready state.
Packed with 13 corking tunes the album combines the raw power of 1970s US punk with the a-typical social conscience of groups such as The Jam and is an album full of pure garage rock orientated excellence.
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