The bastard has finally met the beast. In other words, Melbourne’s La Bastard have scored a deal with French record label Beast Records. And given French society’s ability to deal maturely and gracefully with extra-marital conception, it’s an entirely appropriate cross-cultural pairing.
Ooh La La Bastard is a cross-section of La Bastard’s material taken from its previously released LPs and EPs. Starting with the torch-hot sockhop drama of Beaten Down, this is an album that offers the good, the great and intense of La Bastard. Skip through to Get Up Get Out and you’re in the crashing white water with an amphetamine-laden Dick Dale; on Bewitchery you’re mesmerised by dirty romantic tone. Timorese Ninja is Link Wray via Dili and Osaka, In Deep is 60s girl garage in a sly grog shop and Cold Rainy Night finds Lee Heazlewood trading licks with Ennio Morricone in a shady Baja nightclub.
Call of the Wild takes La Bastard out onto the savannah with only a jungle beat and some sultry Peggy Lee vocals to protect them from the dangers of the wild; Promise Me is a Saturday night in the company of hotted up dragsters and ne’er do well leather-clad Eddie Cochrane fans. On It’s Not Like I’m Telling a Lie matters get hot, sweaty and loose in a Gene Vincent sort of a way; Stranger in the Night is nocturnal danger with a jagged rockabilly soundtrack. And if you’re caught in the night with all sorts of weird shit happening, La Bastard might just be the only thing that’ll get you out alive.
BY PATRICK EMERY
If You Like These, You’ll Like This:Link Wray, Link Heazelwood, Dick Dale
Best Song: Stranger in the Night
In A Word:Surfabilly
