IN THE RAW – Slideshaker (Bad Afro Records)
The title “In the Raw” brings to mind that infamous footage of Aussie band Lubricated Goat playing stark bollock naked on TV on “Blah Blah Blah” in the mid 1980s, caused the ABC switchboard to go into overload dealing with the shock and horror of the average ABC viewer. Judgnig by occasional 
postings to the Garage Punk bulletin board it’s not clear when Cousin Creep’s documentary on the subject will make it to our screens – hopefully it will, and hopefully it elaborates on that bizarre moment in Australian national broadcasting history.
Such historical digressions aside, this particular raw product is 10 tracks of the rudimentary and rockin’ garage brilliance we’ve come to know, love and respect from Bad Afro Records. “Bones” starts things from a guttural, muddy location, a picture of southern swampy desolation painted by Mick Collins after a liberal dose of Thunderbird ESQ. “Easy Street” could have easily mutated into a sly take on The Jam’s That’s Entertainment but takes a left turn at the fork in the road and ends up in country fuzz territory, “Her Sun Going Down” is tough as nails, rough as diamonds, straight down the line west coast fuzzrock while “Unfortunate Son” comes out like a haunting garage postmodern interpretation of De La Soul’s early 1990s appropriation of The Turtles.
And if that’s not weird enough “Heartbeat Baby” goes from electronic metronome (think that awful dah dah dah song from the 1980s) into a rousing pub rock tune that the contemporary pub rock revival movement can only aspire to. “Train Slowing Down” mellows slightly courtesy of a lo-fi skiffle feel, “Better Version of You” is a relatively quiet and soulful track with something that sounds like a saxophone and “No Love Lost” – the closest thing to a garage ballad on the album before a wall of wailing feedback appears to scuff up any hint of shine – shows that modern Helsinki isn’t that far from the northern English r’n’b venues of the mid 1960s.
Like the good people at Cooper’s Brewery (ignoring that horrendous brewing aberration that was Cooper’s Black Crow in the early 1990s, the less said about the better), the Scandi-garage obsessed Bad Afro folk can usually be relied upon to bring us many and varied fuzzed out gifts of sonic joy. Slideshaker’s stripped down aural aesthetic demonstrates just how contrived those MTV unplugged sessions were – genuine rawness cuts to the bone and leaves a lasting impression. Like the blood drawn from such an incision, Slideshaker release a river of fuzz that shines like the heavy metals reflecting on a polluted eastern European tributary. But unlike such environmental massacres, Slideshaker makes you stronger and healthier. - Patrick Emery
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