Six Finger Satellite – “A Good Year For Hardness”

As the first guitar riff ‘jig jags’ in on “Hot Food” your instant reaction is, “My God, it’s Devo!” The guitar starts to hang and then J. Ryan opens his mouth and you realise that this band are much murkier and darker than Devo. Anyway, they’re not Devo and they haven’t been Devo for around twenty years. This is Six Finger Satellite’s seventh album after a previous 13 years together, a 6 year break and reformation in 2007.

On first listening I was a little under whelmed. There were a few times as the album wore on, that I mentally urged them to stop the repetitive rhythms and riffs and just get some power chords out and go for it. To be fair, on certain occasions they did. However, after a few reflective listens, I came to the conclusion that it would probably just spoil their overall sound if they just kept on going full out rock.

There’s no doubt if you don’t like repetitive twang type guitar lines (think of The Rakes, but slower and grungier) then look away now. If you like full out distortion and fast rock music, this is the opposite of what you want.

However, I like it. It’s not only foot tapping material but you could easily listen to these guys whilst having a few beers and then just go crazy. It doesn’t sound 100% serious and I think that’s intentional. Its fun, it also makes you feel a bit liberated when the band do finally let a screw loose and go for it.

There’s a few whacky synth noises on the record too and it adds to the wacky sound well. The only problem with the album is that there is little diversity and sometimes the wailing voice of J. Ryan and hanging guitar sounds can start to irritate. Overall, it’s a good sludgy album, but as it’s so genre specific, a little bit too much of the same.  [ END ]

Track Listing:

01. Hot Food
02. Roam From Home
03. Don’t Let Me
04. Wilson P.
05. Midnight Rails
06. Half Life
07. Swamp Wanda
08. Broken Brain
09. Hearts & Rocks
10. Rise

Run Time: 41:20
Release Date: 11.03.2009