| CD REVIEW The Madd |
 |
|
Band : The Madd This Rotterdam (Holland) based Pop Rock quartet (composed of lead singer/ guitarist Dave von Raven, organist De Schuinmarscheerder, bassist Richart Bouguet, and drummer Slammin’ Marty Graveyard) specializes in the vintage sixties’ Beat sound, as was popularized by the likes of The Beatles and The Kinks (in their beginning days). Actually, the band’s sound is most remeniscent of the latter! Of course, as far as the vocals are concerned, they don’t have a Ray Davies (nor do they have the specific vocal synergy of The Beatles)…but then again that sets ‘em apart from their examples! Founded in 2005, they release their debut EP The Madd Are Left Behind in May 2006. The success of the sold-out premiere night at the 250 capacity Rotterdam venue Rotown entices the band to go for a full-length recording, which they do late 2006 at the renowned Wisseloord studios! Eventually they get noticed in the music industry and sign to Excelsior Recordings, which releases The Madd’s debut album Ongeneeslijk Beat (Dutch for “incurably Beat”) in October 2007, which is warmy received by the press. In a close working relationship with Rock And Roll Highschool then ensue a series of gigs throughout the Netherlands, which not only sees the band play at quite a few of the known venues and at smaller festivals, but also at such established events as Oerol, Zwarte Cross, and Noorderslag! In the midst of the hectic Summer days, the band nevertheless enters the studio to record the French sung single Je Suis Parti, which got aired at MTV and TMF both, and even got a respectable 2nd place at MTV’s Brand New Chart! In January 2009 they released a video for “Jump Now”, and again get plenty of airtime on the Dutch music channels! Meantime, the band struck a collaboration with Amsterdam Rapper/ Hip Hopper Dio, playing gigs together. This eventually resulted in the two also getting together in the studio to record a joined single tiled “Baby”, and which was released late June of last! Before that, in November 2008, the band had already returned to the Wisseloord studios (taking along addiotional instruments like violins, piano, bells, and a whóle lotta verve) to start the recordings for their newest full-length album. As was the case with the bands they tailored their music to, The Madd’s lyrics are somewhat crazy and without real content. The whole sounds só out-dated, it becomes attractive! Or at least to me! And although I was already around (as a toddler) at the time, I only got acquainted with these band’s earliest material during the ‘70s and ‘80s! So, it’s not just a nostaglic feel I’m getting here! No, in fact, I would say that in this band’s musical simplicity lays a great force to be reckoned with! Completely in-sinc with the days of old, the track-length lays somewhere between 2 and 3 minutes [except in the case of album opener “I Know” (3:24), “Step Into The Sun” (8 seconds beyond 3:00), and the super-lengthy (4:04) album closer “The Erroneus Ideas Of Mr. Rupert Stapleton” (but then that’s to be expected with such a psychedelic title…which is also the mood of the song, by the way, at least as far as the Beat genre allows), and the 14 tracks on this album accompanied by bonus track “Ce Soir Je Vais Boir” (yep, another possible hit song, sung in French) make up for an album that’ll take you forwards in time 40 ½ per complete twist in the cd-player! Still, it’s time well spent!!! You can get addicted for yourself by surfing to myspace.com/themadd, where the band posted 4 tracks off the new album alongside the “Je Suis Parti” single and two tracks off the debut album. Meanwhile, the boys shot a video for the album track “Good Evening Girl” (check it out via the blogs on their MySpace)! Ni-ice stuff this, and definitely my favourite Beat-generation album for this year…even if it won’t make my year-lists! 87/100 Tony. |