Sexy sexy sexy - this album is clearly what happens when you lock yourself in a room for a couple of years, become sexually frustrated and learn to play the guitar whilst listening to a shit load of folky blues and heavy rock. Or at least this is the impression one gets from listening to this album, 'Derdang Derdang'. Actually, the ARCHIE BRONSON OUTFIT are former art students who morphed into the current line up we have today, but a bit of poetic lisence never did anyone any harm.
Emerging as one of the bright new talents of 2006, ABO repeatedly punch you in the head with an album which is jagged, powerful and raw. Pretty much produced live (in Nashville), a few tracks were recorded in single takes, some were recorded without click tracks, it all culminates in something natural, and is all the more free for it. As is common knowledge, ABO were discovered by Laurence Ball of Domino Records, while they were performing in his local pub, and they were promptly snapped up and the rest is history. Lucky jossers.
The entire album seems to revolve around on sex, sex and more sex. Like any Mills n Boon novel worth it's salt, flick open any page (or play any track) and you'll get inuendo, or highly suggestive content. Examples? "I am a deep sea diver/ I'm going to dive down on you... Dead funny, don't worry, just get your head down..." [Dead funny], "I suppose we're modern lovers/ We meet and fuck and don't hear each other...." [Modern Lovers], etc. The thing is, ABO get away with it, not least because of there screaming youth, but the range of context (it explores the darker side of sex and lust- it's intense stuff). And lets face it, their charm is all in the delivery - with the sense of urgency they provoke, they could be singing about egg and chips and it would still sound erotically charged and angry. On the other hand, they could be construed as young chaps who spend far too much time obsessing over sex, and they should edge slowly away from their computer screens, go out and meet real live women. Somehow, I doubt this is the case though.
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Throughout the album, Derdang Derdang totally kicks ass in a rockabilly, punky, skiffley, Captain Beefheartey, dark kind of way. "Kink" conjures up the image of Hell's Angels in the throws of a Morris Dance, whereas the superb "Dart For My Sweetheart" is a clarion call for something (it's hard to tell what, but judging by the general tone of their music, probably something filthy), but then, after all the frenzy and the serrated angst, they bring the album to a close with the bittersweet "Harp for my Sweetheart" - a tender, almost lullaby version of the Dart song - the sort of tune you could rock a baby to sleep with (fortunately babys can't speak at that age). Truly magnificent.
Shake Ye Hips? I think I will...
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