I received a cd quite a few weeks ago and didn’t get around to reviewing it. Entschuldigung, meine Herren!
The Romantic Tomcats from Germany; They’ve produced their own first album, just over the border with the Netherlands it was recorded. This is not your ordinary rockabilly band, in my opinion. Tim Gleichmann with his huge saxophone gives these Tomcats something extra…! They were introduced on Rockabilly-online earlier so i won’t get into that too much.
Seasick is the title and i can tell you, listening to the album hardly makes me seasick. I like this one. It’s not only straight up Rockabilly, there’s jumpblues and swing influences to be heard also, which always does the trick with me. When it’s done right, that is.. And these German gentlemen execute their tricks quite well. What stands out to me is freshness and enthusiasm.
One thing that puts me off a bit is the German accent on the leadvocals. I’m not saying that they should have a Memphis’ accent but just a little more attention on that department would be very nice. All the rest is very well taken care of; There’s no such thing as egoistic instrumentalists on this record. Guitarlines in sync with the saxophone, when the sax howls, tight rhythm is backing it up in a dynamic way. Like it! It seems like all of the 10 tracks on ‘Seasick’ are well played through.
Soundquality-wise i’d say that they’ve chosen their instruments and amplification well because it all seems to fit, the overall balance is alright so credit to the recording engineer. One slight point of criticism is that my pc and cdplayer can’t read any media-info from the cd. Although most rockabillies are of the analogue kind nowadays those small things are also important. On the other hand, the cd case inlay and disc itself looks very well. Lyrics, nice pics and graphics. Well done!
When you see a live gig, you can see if bandmembers are communicating and if they’re enjoying themselves which gives people more joy to watch. I haven’t seen the Romantic Tomcats live but having listened to their album i’ll bet they can give the people just that!
http://www.myspace.com/romantictomcats
www.romantictomcats.com
