It's been two years since the last album from our favourite masked rockers (yup, Detroit Grand Pubahs) but lucky for us they're back with the Madd Circus LP on their own DET.ELE.FUNK imprint.
The new album sees them moving away from the techno sound that marked their last two albums, taking on a much more funky electro pop sound as heard on their debut LP Funk All Y'All. Worth your benjamins?
The album opens with an authentic electro-pop tune called Autotragik that oozes with muddy electro stabs and pulses and includes some very nice vocals on top of that. The dark I Didn't Want To Party (which is probably not autobiographic) provides a great dubby bridge to one of the album's standout tracks, White Pigeon, a tune floating on a cool distorted synth line and vox by the Dave The Hustler pretending to be a synthrock pimp daddy. Kinda like a dirty version of The Presets you could say. Nexton the album is a DJ Godfather-esque rambling by the Pubahs, warning us that they don't like ho's in their studio... Thanks for the heads up mate!
Zombies Playing Death pitches up the tempo a notch and features no vocals at all... just smashing electro sounds in a frenzy ass-slapping fashion with sirens and shit but hey, can't say we shy away from that. On Mysterious Sights, the guys show they are familiar with the dub step genre as well and sees them dropping some heavy bass lines. Not their best track, but it's a stomper nonetheless. Track 9 is recent album single NUmb Deaf and Dumb, a classic break up song with the usual tongue in cheek lyrics from Paris the Black FU. Kinda like The Presets again, but less faggy. Be sure to check the wicked vid all the way down!
For Breakfast in Bed sees Paris laying down some sensitive deep vocals, I can't state it any better than the press release; "Breakfast In Bed" sees Barry "the love walrus White taking over". In the next track the funk is back! Mashed Potato is as funky as they come, including the guitar and saxophone. Cool stuff, especially the wobbly bass line is spot on!
I Dont Mind feel a bit like Mario & Luigi in the land of mushrooms but then in a sensitive way... la la la oohoo! Well it's wrong and it's on the verge of getting cheesy, but we soiled ourselves listening to it. And we mean that in a positive way. The suddenly incoming Maybe I Do is exactly the opposite, slamming synth stabs with Paris spitting on the beat full out on a rock-fueled basis. Kick ass. Title track Madd Circus attacks us with a merciless drum & bass vas guitar mania and better believe that bass is f*cking maaaaaaad! This is the kinda stuff best played on those amps that go to 11. The closing track Clone Mobile sees the guys return to the funky side of things, again with some sounds from Mario going bad on acid, brilliant.
Overall speaking, this next LP by the Pubahs is a very cool one! Sure, it's a bit sick in the head, but history has learned us some of the best music comes from loonies. Madd Circus has become a very diverse yet stunning-in-all-its-forms album for some bitchin' madness whatever the occasion is. Be sure to get it on the day it hits the shops.Oh...and check out the interview we did with the guys!
Album review - 
