To celebrate 20 years of Jezus Factory Records the label persuaded Ian Button to take time off from all the bands he's involved in, from Heavenly to Railcard and beyond to curate this tribute album to The Brazen Hussies one of the great lost 90's drug rock bands. Label head honcho Andrew Michael Bennett helped to bring together some key figures from Antwerp's underground scene, including the first commercially available new music from Craig Ward from Deus since 2017, alongside the British contingent. Even if you are not a Brazen Hussies fan this is a cool interesting comp, if you wish to explore what made Brazen Hussies worthy of a tribute album you should buy Year Zero; An Anthology also on Jezus Factory Records or find the bands cover of The Modern Lovers I'm Straight. The album was mastered by Ian Button at Grimston Levelling Solutions.
The A-Side opens with Papernut Cambridges version of Pop Song that gives the song a good psyche pop feel, while telling us to enjoy the high and just don't behave like he's the one. Benny Zen's take on Forgot More Than I Ever Knew turns it into a cool indie-pop song that hopes they cannot lose the plot any further than they already have.
Elko Bliijweert slows down Sleep It Off into a sparse reflection, almost a lullaby for someone who really needs to come down and get back to reality, the slow picked guitar hints that you don’t have to be the loser who dies too soon. Heyme get all down and dark on Salt Leak with chill the bones sax, set against the harmony backing vocals and the central feelings of unease.
The press release describes David Cronenburgs Wife as London's creepiest Band for the slow tale of I Looked Into Your Eyes, played like a slow horror film narration with all the dark trauma of trying to convince you to love him, when you really don't, played nice and slow, acoustic guitars have a melancholic feel. Donkey Diesel’s take on Fleur has a dark Lee Marvin country rock feel that alters how this song normally affects me, when hearing Lou McDonnell singing it like the bastard daughter of Lorette Velvette.
Sjoerd Bruil turn Crawfish into a synth pop song with some very funky bass notes. John Doe One recites Scrape like it's a dark beat poem, with stark clock ticking notes and other sparing percussion making this feel like a chilling dark narration.
The B-Side opens with Harvesters take on Wet Shelter is a grungy psychedelic maelstrom of desire and pain to freak out too. While claiming you'll never sleep again, claiming they are not crazy like Mike making clear he shouldn't be Institutionalized when all he wanted was a pepsi. Belgian legend Kloot Per W treats Thin Lips like it should always have been a dance pop song with clap track and dark intoned vocals.
Rudy Trouve's version of Forgot More Than I Ever Knew is stripped to the core, with hushed vocals and askew strumming and odd noises. Jereon Stevens turns Touch It into a bonkers to the extreme synth techno dramedy, it has an odd cartoon chase edge to parts of it.
Starsha Lee brings bags of Glam eccentricity to The Whole World Envies Us almost like Lene Lovitch singing with a Daisy Chainsaw style glam noise band, it's brilliant. Dolk take on Heavy Electricity as a slow dark rumination with eruptions of reverb intense guitars and ramshackle drums getting caught up in the static, shocking us into finding a reason to stay alive, despite the despair they feel.
Craig Ward treats Bridesville as a late-night strummed tale of why you need to get the demons out of you and how to avoid ending up in Bridesville. The album closes with Brazen Hussies own version of Scrape that I originally described thus, Scrape has an urgency like you need to have a Scrape to prove you didn't give someone the clap, the guitars really go off like incendiaries, set against dentist drill sounds and plenty of clatter. That still seems a perfect encapsulation of this rather catchy song.
Find out more at https://www.jezusfactory.com/shop/sleep-it-off-a-tribute-to-the-brazen-hussies/ https://jezusfactoryrecords.bandcamp.com/album/forgot-more-than-i-ever-knew check for full album https://www.facebook.com/jezusfactoryrecords
