Share DUST STORM - Cold Harbour (Drunken Cowboy)
Everybody wants to play heavy blues and get down and dirty, and this Melbourne four-piece give it as good a shot as anybody from their neck of the woods. Here are 14 songs with a massive bottom-end that throw a nod in the direction of the latter-day Beasts of Bourbon, Buffalo and various conspicuous bluesmen. Grand Funk Railroad might have sounded like this if they'd spent some time in a swamp and hadn't been so interminably boring.There's a thick stew of guitars being cooked up with a healthy dash of slide. Thumbs up to Michael Teluk and Vincent J Kramer in the six-string department. They mix and match tone nicely. Kramer handles lead vocals and mostly occupies the upper mid register; in his more unhinged moments he intones like Leadbelly with a toothache.
The engine room's a goodie: Drummer/co-producer Evan Richards spends plenty of time on the toms and bassist Colin Holst doesn't over-play. He has a lot of prominence in Jason Torrens' heavy but transparent mix. Therein lies a lot of the attraction - these songs are good and recorded well.
Cold Harbour don't knock any stylistic fences down. Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie are name-checked as inspirations although neither of them had amps that cranked to 11. This is over-driven blues all the way. The label doesn't lie. You know what you're going to get.
"Radio Days" and "Rain Come Down" are the light relief- relatively speaking. Two islands in a sea of sullen heaviness. Throw in the sleepy "Rides At Sundown" for that matter. It'll keep the stoners happy. "16 Wheels" sounds uncannily like the late Ian Rilen fronting the Love Addicts (which is high praise around these parts) and "I - Say Alright" would have done as a single if people still issued them, with sharp chording and a beefy chorus.
Some will be dismissive and say "Dust Storm" is regressive. Fair call. Cold Harbour would have been happy as hippies in hemp shirts to have been on stage at Sunbury in '72, somewhere between Carson and SCRA. There's pretty well nothing new in rock and roll these days. It's circular and it feeds on itself. Cold Harbour put their own stamp on a tested formula and there's nothing wrong with that. - The Barman
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COLD HARBOUR - Cold Harbour self titled ep (self released)
Now, this is a real find. These Melbourne guys are not pups, and they have sifted the best from some fine record collections. They’ve been known to call it Morricone rock, and that’s a fair thumbnail description. Spaghetti western twang, pumping Nuggets/garage riffs, bubblegum pop and good old fashioned 70s rock all jostle for space. They have a new one lined up and ready to go soon, too.Here’s hoping they play out live a bit to support it. - TJ Honeysuckle
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