C.Bailey & H.Burns - Stranger - Vicious Circle - reverb113

In 1976, Chris Bailey's Brisbane band The Saints became Top Of The Pops' first punk guests. Bailey's recent European sojourns have furnished a collaboration with H-Burns, from the moody French post-rock group Dont Look Back, that rehabillitates his tarnished legend. A fresh take on the sound of all those inscrutable early Eighties American revivalists the Paris label New Rose used to champion, Stranger is roots rock with a punk kick.

The strident six string ache of Muse could be an out-take from True West's desert rock Drifters album, Winter is a cow-punk boneshaker, and the title track's glorious extended coda is convincingly epic.

(30/10/11)