Album Review

Son Of Dave – Shake A Bone

• 25th Mar 2010

It’s not very often that something lands on my iPod with as much impact as Son of Dave’s ‘Shake A Bone’ has. He’s a man who, and I have to be honest, I’d never heard of until this record, but as I begun to spin the album, and ‘Rock & Roll Talent Show’ thwarted out, I was sold. Right from the offset, this felt like a classic record that I worry will be lost amid all the Laura Marling and Gorillaz releases this month.

It’s an absolute museum of musical curiosities with elements of jazz, hip-hop (courtesy of some harmonica beat-boxing), and darn right scratchy, rebellious rock. It doesn’t really have a direction, or at least that’s maybe what Son of Dave main-man Benjamin would simply have us believe. It’s all over the place, but that’s perhaps the trademark of the records fairy-godfather Steve Albini. Surely a mass of noise that takes a while for your sonic pallet to understand is what Shellac were all about. That same identity is present here, though the angular guitar stabs of ‘Terraform’ have been replaced by an eccentric drunk banging around on floorboards, empty guitar cases and whatever else he needs to for this sound, this noise to come out. It’s a genuinely bedazzling experience.

‘Voodoo Doll’ and ‘She Just Danced All Night’ are standout tracks, but believe me; you won’t be putting this on for the odd track. It’s an album.