Electric Aborigines

The opening moments of Awesome Color's second album catch the band already deep in the midst of what sounds like at least a three-alarm fire. Drummer Allison Busch is going monkey crazy behind her kit, Derek Stanton is shredding vocal cords and throwing out lightning-fast, thunder-heavy guitar and Michael Troutman stands in the middle of the wreckage holding it down in classic Entwistle style. It's a rousing, inspiring start and serves notice that not much has changed since the band's first album. Awesome Color was a thrilling blast of rock & roll energy delivered with brains and brawn, sounding like grandkids of the '60s Detroit rock sound, but also like kids having a blast rocking like hell. Electric Aborigines is more of the same and that is a very good thing. Their sound is so tight, dynamic, and exciting that the lack of change matters not one bit. The band could crank out album after album in this exact style and never be boring. There are a few stylistic differences between albums, Electric Aborigines is a little looser here and there (the funky "Come and Dance" being an example), and they experiment more sonically by bringing in a few new instruments to complement their classic power trio lineup, most notably organ and sitar. There's also a slightly more confident feel to the tracks, and the sound is a little less frantic and a little more focused, which leads to less unpredictability from song to song but makes for a more unified and powerful album. Songs like the thudding sludge rocker "Taste It" or the slinky, menacing "Outside Tonight" actually show some restraint and prove that the band doesn't have to go all out to have the same spine-tingling impact. Indeed, Awesome Color are still awesome and Electric Aborigines is another first-rate dose of rock & roll thunder.