Album Review

The Good The Bad – From 034 To 050

• 9th Nov 2012

‘From 034 To 050’ is the third album released by Danish rockers The Good The Bad. It follows on from their 2010 debut album ‘From 001 To 017’and last year’s follow up ‘From 018 To 033’. The pattern is clear – numbers not track names and a new album every year or so. There is a plan and they stick to it.

The Good The Bad are a trio: Adam Olsson on lead guitar, Johan Lei Gellett on drums and Manoj Ramdas on baritone guitar. They don’t have a singer. The music is usually described as surf rock mixed with a bit of flamenco, but that doesn’t really do it justice.

There are several recurring themes to TGTB’s music. The tracks are short – the 17 songs on this album range from 33 seconds to 2:49 and the whole album is not much more than half an hour long. The pace is fast, with pounding drums, solid riffs and screaming solos aplenty. And the musical quality is high throughout.

It’s not easy to review an instrumental album where there are no track names. Suffice to say that there is tremendous energy to the music and much more finesse than you would expect. The drumming is intricate and sets a great rhythm and the two guitars at times complement each other beautifully while at others they duel in thrilling fashion.

There is not a vast amount of variation between the tracks, so the little touches of difference do stand out. The psychedelic feel of the bass heavy 040. The stunning solo work in the exhilarating and manic 042. The xylophone on 044. Is that a flute on the slightly slower 047?

But the point of an album like this isn’t to be able to identify the individual tracks by name or number. Think of it as a cohesive whole rather than a series of parts. It’s very good guitar music in a pure and simple style that you just don’t see too often these days. It’s more structured than a jam session but retains the same loose approach and raw, exhilarating feel.

The Good The Bad are a very different band. They don’t follow trends or fashions; they do things their own damned way. And I hope that they continue to follow their own path, producing great rock music for a long time to come.

Venue: From 034 To 050
Support Band: Stray Cat Records