If 2011’s Blood Lust was a Hammer Horror of an album that took The Beatles’ White album and the proto-doom of Black Sabbath and twisted them into satanic new shapes for the 21st century, then this follow-up by Cambridge’s most shadowy, psyche-stoner rock crew claims to look stateside for influences.
And while obscure B-movie biker flicks and the presence of Blue Öyster Cult, Blue Cheer and most notably early Alice Cooper all loom over the likes of Poison Apple and seven minute closer Devil’s Work, Uncle Acid – real name KR Starrs – and his shadowy cohorts imbue enough eccentric Englishness into these nine rock rituals to shake off their influences.
Mind Control may occasionally lack the outright mania of its predecessor but this is music made in a puff of red smoke, heady and hypnotic. Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats are making some of the most alluring music in Britain’s fertile underground.
