Satan

Mother Mojo was an excellent follow-up to Satan & Adam's first-rate debut, Harlem Blues. The duo hasn't abandoned their minimalist guitar and harp blues, but there is a loose energy that keeps the music fresh and consistently engaging.
The pair's sound is beefed up intermittently by percussionist Sammy Figueroa, but their telepathic sense of interplay emerges unscathed. Satan, billed as Sterling Magee when he recorded for Ray Charles' Tangerine label during the late 1960s ("Seventh Avenue," a remake of Magee's "Oh Wasn't She Pretty" from that era, is irresistible) owns a wonderfully raspy voice not unlike Brother Ray's. He powerfully delivers the churning title cut, the message songs "Freedom For My People" and "Ain't Nobody Better Than Nobody," and a torrid remake of Solomon Burke's "Cry To Me."

En Artois, l'histoire de l'abbé Donissan, curé de campagne, qui tente de sauver Mouchette, la jeune meurtrière de son amant, de son désespoir et de la tentation du diable. Elle finit par se trancher la gorge, mais Donissan, dans sa fréquentation et sa résistance à Satan, aura trouvé l'étroit chemin de la sainteté. …

En Artois, l'histoire de l'abbé Donissan, curé de campagne, qui tente de sauver Mouchette, la jeune meurtrière de son amant, de son désespoir et de la tentation du diable. Elle finit par se trancher la gorge, mais Donissan, dans sa fréquentation et sa résistance à Satan, aura trouvé l'étroit chemin de la sainteté. …

Taking their name from the 1960s B-movie Satan's Sadists, Portland, Oregon's Satan's Pilgrims' spirited blend of retro-surf and foot-stomping garage rock evokes the raw power and instrumental prowess of the Ventures, the Sonics, the Wailers, and the Kingsmen – it also draws from horror movies, Joe Meek productions, and the British Invasion. Like contemporaries and labelmates the Fathoms and Space Cossacks, the band caught the resurgent early-'90s surf rock wave brought forth by the arrival of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, which reintroduced the world to Dick Dale's "Misirlou," and rode it to nominal commercial success via essential outings like Around the World with Satan's Pilgrims (1997) and their eponymous fifth studio long-player (1999).

"Siniestro" is the ninth album by the Pilgrims and marks the 25th year of the five original members staking out their own special corner of the surf instrumental genre. Bobby, John, Ted, Scott and Dave are extremely excited by the 15 original and new songs that they have written, arranged and recorded themselves for “Siniestro”. That’s right, no producer or engineer on this one, they have made “Siniestro” just the way they want it. Recorded by the band in the abandoned Mt. Hood Masonic Lodge in Portland, this recording captures the live feel of a large reverberating room with the band getting back to their surf roots while clicking on all cylinders…

The colourful catalogue of Finland’s Svart Records spans material old and new, but seems to specialise in scarce gems from the forested country’s underground music history. In this case, we have a tour de force of several decades’ worth of Suomi synthpop and disco. ‘Satan in Love’ by Emilia is a notorious inclusion and alone speaks volumes of the quality on offer. Loistava homma!