Dan Patlansky

Perfection Kills (Caroline International)

Volcanic blues rock from a player who is poised to erupt South African blues rocker Dan Patlansky has been building a reputation as both a songwriter and virtuoso guitarist since album Dear Silence Thieves made a serious impact back in 2014. This was followed by the highly acclaimed Introvertigo in 2016 and since then live appearances – most recently a UK tour with Joanne Shaw Taylor in autumn 2017 – have bolstered his reputation as an all-round Stratpowered firebrand and his collection of positive reviews and awards have begun to multiply. Both his previous albums have been produced by Theo Crous, but

Perfection Kills sees the bluesman take over production duties himself. “I learnt so much working with Theo,” he tells us. “I worked on pre-production and songwriting with Theo on a couple of the tracks for

Perfection Kills and applied what I learnt to the recording and production process of the album.” The result is a raw, energy enriched rollercoaster of an album that kicks off with the propulsive throb of Johnny and continues apace with some truly excellent rhythm and lead from Dan’s battered 60s Strat. “Perfection Kills is all about my vision of making a record that still makes the songwriting a priority as in the past, the final product delivering a far more real and organic result.” There are certainly signs of an ongoing development in the crafting of songs like the moody and brooding Mayday which stands in direct contrast to the powerful grunt of Too Far

Gone and Junket Man, the latter complete with a guitar solo that not only shreds, but pays due deference to Patlansky’s hero Stevie Ray Vaughan. An album full of colourful contours, Perfection Kills certainly stands repeated listens and we suspect that when he returns to these shores to tour in March, the album will have won him a new legion of fans! [DM] Standout track: Too Far Gone For fans of: SRV, Joe Bonamassa