Album Review

Apache – Boomtown Gems

• 5th Jul 2008

Drawn from members of various sectors of Rock N’ Roll’s more earnest, strident and jam fired outfits such as The Cuts and Ghengis Khan, quivering quartet Apache is born.

Right from the start of this debut ten track trawler, it’s clear that they want to resurrect the snappy impact, croaky vocals and spiralling guitar zing through ‘Boys Life’. In most of the offerings, shades of New York Dolls, Iggy And The Stooges and Yes blends together, as the three minute mark is seldom breached.

An early metal touch gives ‘Nazi Knife’,grit and gnarl, but the provocative lyrics and spindling riffs keep the balls of Rock N’ Roll swinging. ‘Real Shit’, illuminates the vocal interaction between vocalists Apache and Carlos, as a chanting punk spike intermingles with a falsetto rock slide to give the number rhythm, drive and a rustic edge.

A blues rocking Black Rebel Motorcycle Club styled thrusting, ‘Crystal Clear’ uses grinding repetition of the song title that is complemented by a grind of the guitars to produce a murky saunter.

Brazen drug referencing and 24 hour party people lauding vitriol of ‘White Hammer’, uses a backbone of twisted 70s riffs that makes it unashamedly derivative, but still effective in keeping the attention fixed on their rocking out.

It gets difficult at times, in the likes of ‘Charlie Go Home’, not to let your mind wander off into a Thin Lizzy song, but the lyrical simplicity and cock-sure self-confidence renders Apache able to still stamp their own mark in your mind.