The Total Rejection – The Time Travellers 3rd Will and Testament
Prolific Bristol-based garage-punk, psyche-popsters The Total Rejection return with their latest long-player set for release on June 30. Musical inspiration and influences are unashamedly drawn, lifted and liberated from innovative, often underground, acts of the mid-late 60s from both sides of the Atlantic. The Time Travellers 3rd Will and Testament not only continues from where their previous offering concluded, it sees The Total Rejection continue on their upward trajectory. Combining crushing power chords, with wah-wah and tremolo effects abounding, slamming bass riffs, swirling psyche and sleazy garage punk Hammond organ, driven by pummelling, unrelenting, primal drum beats, they deliver a gloriously lo-fi 15 tracks with bags of alt-pop appeal. Topped off with sometimes gruff, sometimes sneering vocals, to produce a cacophony of real music. If polished, overproduced, bland studio-created ‘music’ is your thing, The Total Rejection are not for you. Conversely, if you prefer your music to have balls, and instead of overdone, your palate prefers it raw and real, these guys will be right up your street. The opening number, Gravy, is a snarling slab of incessant, raw garage punk, while Drilling Holes In The Sky is a fuzzy psyche-pop gem that tips a wink to The Monkees’ Stepping Stone. Next two tracks, Too Late, I’m Gone and She’s Gotta Go-Go are psyche-pop nuggets that remind of Dr Robert in his prime. Coming at you like an unstoppable behemoth is If I Get Too High, a pounding, unrelenting, laying waste to all in its wake, garage punk killer.
Fly (Lost In Time – Party Nine) with searing power chords is a nod in the direction of The Who at their most brutal, circa mid60s. Sneering, snotty nosed, belligerently executed garage-punk with the odd title of Ooobeedoobeedoobee is the penultimate number on side one of the vinyl album, with the musically contrasting, swirling, tripped out psyche pop ditty Caravan, which hints at late-60s sunshine sounds of the US West Coast. The first track on side two comes in the shape of Weeds, garage-punk-pop with a young Jagger-esque vocal. Which leads neatly into Next Time I See You Around, and its Satisfaction-type riffs. Mod power pop, stomping, frantic, unpolished diamond of a track, Tracy Said. One of Detroit’s finest exports, The Stooges, have something of a homage paid to their proto-punk style of Raw Power on the searing Fyne Good Kynd Lovin’. A rarity from The Total Rejection is to record a cover version, but that’s exactly what comes next with the boys putting their own slant on Bohemian Vendetta’s Enough.
Penultimate track Ain’t Gonna Lie To You is a long-time live favourite, unsurprising as its sing-along type lyrics have instant appeal.
To close is Distress Signals, overflowing with all sorts of sonic trickery, propelling the listener into the stratosphere and beyond.
A real band, real music, raw, raucous with a retro-leaning, yet a breath of fresh air in today’s music world.
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