Rise & Fall of the Last Civilization – Guttercats (Wishing Well Records/Lucinda Records)As for the Guttercats you may have heard their name around the I-94 Bar. before. They sprang up in Paris in 2007 and the key member is Guts Guttercat, (ex-Baby Strange) who vocalises and adds occasional acoustic guitar. Guttercats play an amalgam of Stones-crossed-with-early-Alice glammy blues rock. Peter Perrett and Nikki Sudden are obvious reference points. Their music has an intrinsic sense of high drama. Just like Parisian waiters.
Guitarist Chris Waldo is a long-term member and the album should tell you why. The band itself has been all over Europe more times than Thomas Cook (that’s an Anglo joke – in other words: a fucking lot). Right now, they’re in Spain for the 15th time.
“Rise & Fall” is a concept album about the end of the world but if you’re a glass-half-full person, don’t let that put you off. It rocks in a measured sort of way and draws you in via pathways that are not immediately obvious.
The title track that opens proceedings is a sweeping sonic vista full of twang. Consider yourself engaged. Meandering violin imparts tension and otherworldliness to “Aliens Are Back”, a vaguely Roky-esque slice of lyrical whimsy that even manages to namecheck Australia along the way.
“Beautiful Curse” is the lean rocker of the record, a chiming piano counterpoint underpinning the song as Chris Waldo applies some stinging psychedelic guitar. You can’t miss the Ennio Morricone flavouring in the loss-lament remorse of “If You Still Love Me” or the “Sad Vacation” echo in the Thunders-like “Out Of Style”.
The upbeat acoustic-flair of “Wishing On a World” seems at odds with its resigned lyrical anger in a song where Waldo’s nifty guitar sturm und drang again comes to the fore. It’s a satisfying closer to a record that bears repeated listening.
“Rise & Fall…” is on the band’s own Wishing Well Records label, but you can easily hear and procure it via the Lucinda Records Bandcamp.
