Garage Rock From Cape Town

You wouldn't directly think of Capetown in South Africa when thinking of sixties garage rock. Still that is where the threesome The Future Primitives was founded in 2011. In their short existence they already knew to release an EP and a full album. Those are filled with wild garage and psychedelic rock music. A bit of surf and rockabilly were added to that. This lively mix has been spiced up even more on their new LP Into The Primitive.

The Future Primitives - Into The Primitive (Ronald Says 8 out of 10)

The record was recorded completely in analogue without complicated technical tricks or aids. The sound is nicely sharp and full of reverb as expected. The somewhat high pitch voice of singer/guitarist Jonny Text fits perfectly. When he's putting extra effort in it, his vocals get more gritty. This makes the music even more raw. He's also drowning his guitar sound in effects. The guitar riffs full of reverb and fuzz sound playful and give the songs a catchy sound. It makes them lean towards surf because of this. All combined with the characteristic jangling sound, the band is sounding authentic as if they are really from the sixties.

The thirteen songs fly by with great speed. They sound spiky and compact, where most of them are below three minutes. The shortest song 'Girl Like You' is not even one and a half minute. It only enforces the tracks. There's no needless stretching either. Instead of shooting with hail, the group is aiming right on target. Often this leads to direct hits. The gritty 'You Lied' with its screaming vocals and catchy guitar solos for example. But also a longer song like 'The Drone' and its pumping bass line is fascinating from start to finish. The lads don't fly into it constantly. Now and then they grab a moment of rest. It doesn't lead to a ballad right away, but the tempo does go down a bit in 'In And Out' and 'Tried To Let Go'. It gives the album some needed breathing space.

Into The Primitive is a very pleasant record. The band succeeded into grabbing the sound that belongs to this genre. You can hear they are playing with lots of enthusiasm and this is catching on. The energetic songs don't miss their effect. After listening to them you're in good spirits and you're immune to the gloomy autumn weather. It will be interesting to see what it looks like live on stage.



This review has been published on Festivalinfo in Dutch over here.

Listen to Into The Primitive on Spotify.



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