Black Rebel Motorcycle Club "B.R.M.C." 2001****

B.R.M.C., now on their 7th release, never quite managed to repeat the success of this debut of theirs. By which success I don't just mean sales (we all know how actual physical sales have dwindled during the last couple of decades) but reviews and radio play. For those of you too young to remember, radio was something we had before YouTube and Spotify. People called radio DJ's would play records and cd's in a studio, and the sound would be transmitted in the form of electromagnetic waves on the air to be caught by devices called radio receivers or tuners. No digital conversion to little 0's and 1's, no subscription and no internet necessary. But if you missed the broadcast at the moment it happened, there was no way you could listen to it at your own leisure. Crazy times!

Well those rock radio DJ's went crazy for B.R.M.C. for a while. How could they not? They were the epitome of cool: named after a bikers gang in a young Marlon Brando movie, dressed in black leather, making a noisy racket but never appearing to break a sweat. Except probably in "Whatever Happened To My Rock'N'Roll (Punk Song)", which is a supercharged Stooges-inspired hymn to the pioneers of punk rock. Most of the rest is simultaneously noisy and drowned in feedback, but curiously laid-back. The music press of the time painted these Californians as staunch anglophiles, highlighting the obvious similarities with Jesus And Mary Chain, as well as name-checking other Brit rock groups: Ride, Stone Roses, Spiritualized etc. Curiously not so much the other obvious reference, Irish shoegaze paragons My Bloody Valentine. It's possible that these were BRMC's direct influences (after all, the original trio did contain a Brit expat) but the basis of their music is, as with all good rock'n'roll, American: Iggy & The Stooges, Velvet Underground, and Suicide. In the opener "Love Burns", a melody and infectious chorus emerge slowly from a swamp of feedback, "Red Eyes And Tears" is a mid-tempo piece with a monotonous riff, "Awake" a hypnotic ballad, and "White Palms" a groovy rocker while the album's hit "Spread Your Love" is a contrasting mix: a repetitive riff out of 70's boogie rock and a cocky vocal a la Primal Scream, all drowned in muddily produced indie sludge. "As Sure As The Sun", "Rifles", "Too Real" are droney psychedelia and closer "Salvation" a kind of drugged-out gospel reminiscent of Spiritualized's Ladies And Gentlemen... Never less than cool, this album is one of those rare cases where you can believe the hype.

***** for Love Burns, Whatever Happened to My Rock 'n' Roll (Punk Song), Spread Your Love

**** for Red Eyes and Tears, Awake, White Palms

*** for As Sure as the Sun, Rifles, Too Real, Head Up High, Salvation