Shadow looms large (The Datsuns) (LP 4273 - 4279)

The Datsuns  The Datsuns (CD, Shock Records, 2002) *****  

The Datsuns  Outta Sight/ Outta Mind (CD, Hellsquad Records, 2004) **** 

The Datsuns  Smoke & Mirrors (CD, V2 Records, 2006) *** 

The Datsuns  Headstunts (CD, Hellsquad Records, 2008) *** 

The Datsuns  Death Rattle Boogie (CD, HellsquadRecords, 2012) **** 

The Datsuns  Deep Sleep (CD, Hellsquad Records, 2014) ** 

The Datsuns  Eye to Eye (Vinyl, Hellsquad Records, 2021) *** 

Genre: NZ Music, hard rock 

Places I remember: JB Hi Fi, Real Groovy Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: MF from Hell (The Datsuns)

Gear costume: Blacken My Thumb (Outta Sight...)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7

Active compensatory factors: I love hard rock. It gets the blood thumping, my head bopping and my feet moving. I'm especially proud of The Datsuns. Part of my teaching career took in Cambridge High School where these guys got together. My eldest son was good friends with Dolf's younger brother.

The mainstay band members are Rudolf "Dolf" de Borst on vocals and bass guitar, Christian Livingstone and Phil Somervell, both on guitar. Their early seventies influences (Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy) are obvious but so what. They do what they do so well!

They have contributed some superb hard rock in the 2000s, beginning with their amazing debut album in 2002. Every song hits home but the highlights are MF from Hell, Fink for the Man, Sitting Pretty, Freeze Sucker, Lady...actually every song is brilliant!

I was a little disappointed with their second album at the time and I can't think why now - the production by Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones is great and the riffs and melodies are there as well. Ignore the critics and embrace Nu Zild's finest rock band (yes - better than Shihad).

Album number 3 - Smoke & Mirrors continued the prototype Datsuns brand of seventies inspired rock music. Blood Red is a highlight - displaying their customary energy, commitment, and melodic riffs. It's not as consistently brilliant as those first two albums though.

Headstunts was next in 2008. At this point the band was producing one new album every two years. Nothing much new on Headstunts, apart from new drummer - Ben Cole. For most of the songs, the sound collage feels a little more claustrophobic this time out. 

Kudos to the band for trying something new and expanding into more prog rock shapes on two tracks - Eye of the Needle and Somebody Better. Both stretch out and show the band are more than just a seventies fixated hard rocking boogie band. Overall - although it's got some good rockin', it's not an album I play much.

Death Rattle Boogie feels much more like it. Dolf's singing is back to its powerful best this time out as they embrace their true rock out selves again. The riffs are more potent again as they return to the form that led to those first two albums. There's more prog leanings to this one as well - with even a hint of Muse like prog metal.

Deep Sleep is their sixth album, released in 2014. It speeds by in just over 30 minutes but it doesn't sound as inspired as Death Rattle Boogie.

It's still very recognisably The Datsuns with it's retro rock sounds and Dolf's very distinctive vocals, but not a place to start if you are new to the band. That honour would go to their debut, Outta Sight/ Outta Mind or Death Rattle Boogie. The Sabbath influence is most pronounced on Deep Sleep - especially 500 Eyes.

An unusual seven-year gap came before their latest album - 2021's Eye To Eye. This is a much better effort than Deep Sleep as the boys (no longer boys) have a spring back in their steps with some almost punkish energy (Buzzcocks style). 

It's uneven, for sure, but the good bits make this a return to form. Highlights are the opening track - Dehumanise, Brain to Brain and Bite My Tongue.

Where do they all belong? You certainly know what you're getting with The Datsuns. After seven albums, they are now masters of their brand of rock'n'roll.

You, you and me we take a ride on a rocket ship (The Datsuns) #458 - 460

The Datsuns Harmonic Generator (Live)/ Sittin' Pretty (Live)/ Fink For The Man (Live)/Little Bruise/O Woe Is Me/Freeze Sucker (V2/Hell Squad, V2CP 151, 2003)
The Datsuns System Overload/ Don't Shine Your Light On Me/Killer Bees (EMI/Hell Squad, 3769472, 2006)
The Datsuns Stuck Here For Days/ Kick And A Bang/Sky Is Falling/One Eye Open (EMI/Hell Squad, 3697302, 2006)

The Datsuns have been on a wild rocket ship ride and I've been there every (rocky) km of that ride. They started while at Cambridge High School (where I was Deputy Principal) and one of the band's brothers was good friends with my eldest son. Somewhat bizarrely, that connection has given me a personal investment in their progress.

The Harmonic Generator EP has Live At Radio 1 versions of tracks from the debut album - a wide eyed exciting selection of songs. The EP leads off with Harmonic Generator so I'll treat that as the A side.

For me it's one of the weaker songs on the debut. Which tells you how great the debut album is - yet to be bettered by the boys actually.

System Overload is well named - too much going on - it's loud but not especially coherent.

Stuck Here For Days is like System - from Smoke and Mirrors. It's got a cool early Led Zep vibe going on.

Hidden gems: Fink For The Man and Freeze Sucker are two personal favourites (along with MF From Hell) and they are delivered brilliantly on these radio sessions. EXCITING!!!!

Killer Bees is not on parent album (Smoke and Mirrors) but probably should have been - it's a ragey little number (btw Don't Shine Your Light...was also a non starter on the album - in that case a better decision).

Kick and a Bang is also a rager and would also have been a welcome addition to Smoke and Mirrors but wasn't included for some reason. Strange. What's going on guys?

The other two tracks on the EP are also absent from the parent album, but again - no great loss.

That's the way it always comes around (Evermore)

My Roctober 22 post focused on being in the mood to buy CDs.

This post is Mood part 2.

As George Costanza says to Jerry Seinfeld (when Jerry won't give details of sleeping with Elaine cos he's not 'in the mood'):

I don't have a job, I have no place to go, you're not in the mood? Well you get in the mood!!

ZZ Top helped get me in the mood: repeated listens to I gotsta get paid sealed the deal after those videos from my Oct 22 post piqued interest.

In the end I bought three of the four CDs mentioned in that post (the only one yet to be purchased is the Diana Krall one).

The verdicts:

La Futura is awesome. The quality hinted at by the single, I gotsta get paid, is maintained throughout. Billy Gibbons sounds like he's channelling Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters at times. He's raw, he's ready, he's a funky gibbon!



There are plenty of early standouts, I've picked second track, Chartreuse, as being representative of the great sound the Three Tops can put out. The sonic quality is huge on the album. I listened to a few tracks on my p-pod from Afterburner (an album I love) before switching to the new one and La Futura is a much, much better sound.

The Datsuns' album is also a welcome relief after their last few outings have failed in inspire me. Dolf's yell, razor sharp guitars, boogie till you puke rifferamas!! What's not to like? It's a triumphant return to their signature sound and, this time out, it's a much meatier sounding sonic attack from the harmonic generators from Cambridge, NZ.



Evermore have returned to a sound that is closer to their second, much loved, album. The brothers from Feilding, NZ, know how to write hook laden pop songs, that's fer sure.

If I have a criticism it is that this is, at times, too much like their sound on album number 2 - Real Life and they are in danger of becoming too formulaic. I loved that album and it sounds churlish to say because pop music by definition is formulaic, but they could do with being a little bit more adventurous. The new one (Follow The Sun) could be Real Life Volume 2.

Hmmmm - maybe I'm being too tough. There are big songs on both albums and it will be on high rotate in the coming months. And it least they didn't do another naff concept album!

That's the way is a song that could, and maybe should, be a pointer to future directions. It's got some variety and drive and pop sensibilities but without the keening Embrace vocals they love so much (and are maybe overdoing).

Forget the past, present tense works and lasts (Pantera)

Jade asked me an interesting question recently. I mentioned that I didn't feel in the mood to buy a CD yesterday when I went to JB Hi-Fi at St Lukes with Keegan.

She asked, "Do you need to be in the mood to buy music?" My initial thought was 'no' but my reaction yesterday was 'yes'.

Normally I can go into a store like JB Hi-Fi and latch onto at least 3 or 4 CDs I really want to buy but not so yesterday for some reason.

I thought about these four new albums but didn't end up with any:

The Datsuns - Death Rattle Boogie



Evermore - Follow The Sun



ZZ Top - La Futura



Diana Krall - Glad Rag Doll
The main problem with the first three is that their last albums were disappointing. The Datsuns have gone away from their first album sound more and more with each album they've released. Evermore put out a clunker last time out which I really didn't like and ZZ Top did the unthinkable with XXX - released a ho hum album.

Diana Krall's Glad Rag Doll is an album I feel obligated to buy for my father's sake. Problem is the album isn't a jazz one and dad wouldn't have liked it much I suspect (who knows - he loved Diana Krall!).

The reviews and youtube videos above have helped me a bit. The Evermore single (also called Follow The Sun) starts out okay but is not their usual hook laden pop confection. The Datsuns have a tad more energy this time out and seem to have returned to things that made The Datsuns special in the first place. The ZZs are in awesome form with Billy's dirty as guitar sound well to the foreground and the video is brilliant as well. Less is more!

So - next time on the mainland I may have to get in the mood and pick up the Datsuns and ZZ Top albums!