These are interesting times here in the UK we have chaos from those supposedly in charge and I’m listening to a song called “Broken Fangs” in which the door is unlocked that had kept the monsters out. “Broken Fangs” is pleasingly funky. It is the second track in an album of 11 songs called “Rattlesnake Motions”, released on July 8th and featuring the considerable musical talent and insight of Andrew Adkins who plays all the instruments on this 36-minute worth of psychedelic rock and funk, with an underlying jazz belly.
We are slightly late out of the chocks reviewing this one, but it’s a little like a chocolate box where “Divided Lines” would be the strawberry cream, a traditional rocking blues number with a catchy lyric and tempo.
I will give a word on the cover art as this is very eye-catching, a touch of Kate Bush mixed up with a strange horror movie! There is a storm brewing in the skies behind and it is either a celebration of the moment, or a cry for help. I wonder if the door has been opened for the monsters, and who the monsters really are?
In the pensive track “Beautiful and Free” Adkins sings a message of hope and advice. It strips away fears and tells us that youth is a fragile and all too short period that we need to take advantage of. The juxtaposition of the future as the brightest and darkest of times seems to fit the overall drive of the album well. I may have taken this with an acoustic guitar and vocal only, stripping it down even further.
Personally, “Quebrado” was a bit of a high point to the album, it got my foot tapping along and it had this funky rhythm and interesting instrumentalisation that makes the song jump out and demand to be heard.
The music on this album is electronic, experimental and interesting. For the rock fans out there, you certainly get a rocker with “The Explosions in my Head” and it was while listening to this that I was reminded of some of the solo work of George Harrison.
So, overall this is an enjoyable, and distinctive, album from an artist who is well established in a solo career post 2013. Adkins has had considerable success, with his music featured on television with Netflix, Amazon Prime and Lionsgate films, among others. He is a storyteller, clearly, and the video link to his music below will show how the lyrics to the songs relate to the stories within them. With Halloween approaching, this is one of those albums to settle down to late at night by a real fire.
Review by Stevie Ritson