What is Talupo Mountain Music? Well aside from being the name of a two-part series from Melbourne’s The Delta Riggs, it just became a synonym for classic, scungy, balls-out rock music the way your dad’s generation used to make it.
Blasted out in a single live session and self-produced by the quartet, The Delta Riggs’ latest EP stirs together their filthy guitars, blues-tickled ivories and walloping drums into a winning blast of spirit and attitude influenced by the greats. There’s the full-blooded English blues kick of Zeppelin and The Stones, but also a knowing nod (and a wink) to the American contemporaries like The White Stripes and The Black Keys that channelled them so well.
“Counter Revolution” opens the five song set with the explosive simplicity of The Hives, just 145 seconds of sneering riffage. “Money” proves to be the double-punch but with a bit more of a swagger compared to the bull-headed flurry of “Counter Revolution”, thanks to frontman Elliott Hammond’s Jagger-isms. More so on the strut of “Billy Black”, a whiskey-soaked groove that’s as evocative of the Rolling Stones as Primal Scream were in their 90s heyday.
The Riggs are able to slow it down to a searing croon however on “Mary”, which plays like a big-band rendition of a searing soul standard, complete with a bubbling gospel choir and trilling organ to amp up the love-stung drama. Like its titular femme fatale: it’s sexy, smouldering and just a little bit dangerous.
The Delta Riggs’ third EP crackles with all of the energy of a great late-night bar binge, but with none of the bleary-eyed sluggishness of the morning after.
– Al Newstead
