Pussywarmers and REKA - I Saw Them Leaving

by Adrian Huggins

published: 6 / 3 / 2014

Pussywarmers and REKA - I Saw Them Leaving

Label: Wild Honey Records
Format: CD

Chaotic and hedonistic but first-rate debut album from Swiss group the Pussywarmers and Hungarian vocalist REKA, whose musical influences range from the 1920s to the 1970s

Review

By golly, these are a strange lot. Coming from the Italian-speaking parts of Switzerland they are not a band you will forget in a hurry, especially with a name like the Pussywarmers. This presumably refers to their work at keeping felines warm in the winter months, and, well, not something more 18+. I could, however, be wrong. They sound like a sort of European Gypsy band for hire – and of the sort that would play bars, weddings, funerals, festivals and so on. You're not looking at a self-limiting bunch of individuals here. I'm not sure whether they're a journalist’s dream or nightmare as they're very, very hard to categorise, I suppose that's good though. No artist wants to be easy to categorise. Their music lies somewhere between the start of amplified music and the late 1970s. Blending buckets of psych rock, euro-gypsy expression, and pretty much everything else that happened from the 1920s to the 1970s they're sufficiently all of the place but very much in their own place, which would be a floating, wild night of utter excess with people that care not for consequences or rules. 'Sunrise' sounds like the latter part of a hazy drunken night, everything slightly distorted and nonsensical yet there's something which pulls your focus and guides you to quite a happy place. 'Looking Over' has a storytelling approach and guitar/banjo playing. Their tales are well-lived and executed by someone very practiced at telling them. There are times when I'd imagine that this band are entirely comprised of the love children of all the touring musicians from Frank Zappa's era. 'There Are Always Two Answers' made me feel I was being guided into heaven by original 'Mods' which isn't a bad thing if you're into mopeds and parkas. The organs on it are juxtaposed with the strange sounds the rest of the music brings. I very much doubt that the Pussywarmers or their long term Hungarian friend REKA, who lends her vocal talents throughout, are aware that the last 20-30 years has happened musically and I doubt they'd care much either. Packed full of gloriously free-thinking melodies, there's a lot to get your head around. Tunes like 'Something You Call Love' and 'This Town' also echo the likes of Jefferson Airplane, Creedence and Captain Beefheart throughout. 'I Saw Them Coming' is both challenging and quite relaxing if you let it in. They are like the best/worst party guest you could think of, who would join the party despite being of mysterious origin, charm everyone throughout the night, drink all your best booze and would probably still there three days later.

Track Listing:-

1 Under The Sea
2 Sunrise
3 Looking Over
4 Feeling Of Death
5 There Are Always Two Answers
6 Fading Out
7 This Town
8 Young Man Leaving
9 Something You Call Love
10 I Saw Them Leaving