The self-styled ‘Balkan country punk juggernauts’ include a Scottish lead singer, Croatian percussionist, Dutch drummer and an English bassist, and this, their debut album, has enjoyed heavy rotation on the stereo since first play.

It’s deliciously hard to label their sound, but the quartet draws on a fair number of established genres, including country, rockabilly and Balkan-inspired folk, with a good old dose of thrash-inflected punk and bouncing ska to keep everything tight. Evoking classic tortured heroes like Marlon Brando and Johnny Cash, Keith M. Thomson’s lyrical preoccupation with drinking, cursing and death becomes a glorious celebration of the self-destructive.

Biting content and song titles (‘You Wasted Your Life, Now Stop Wasting Your Money’, ‘Come Back When You Have More Ambition’) are sweetened sharply with dark, nihilistic humour.

This is a terrific riot of a debut from a very talented outfit.

4 out of 5

by Charlotte Richardson Andrews, first published in London Tourdates #046 ,8th May 2009