Originating in 2009 out of the port city of Fremantle, Western Australia, potentially one of the most isolated cities in the world, the DATURA4 seed was born from the nucleus of two of Perth’s most celebrated and now legendary garage rockers The Stems (Dom Mariani) and The Bamboos (Greg Hitchcock). For those in the northern hemisphere, just to contact how remote Perth is, it takes longer to fly from the east coast of Australia to Perth, than it does to fly from New Zealand to Australia. Perhaps it isn’t too surprising that they make their own noises over there. This is down and dirty roughhouse bluesy psychedelia that would make Blue Cheer proud. Whether it is the distortion or fuzzed out sounds they employ, this really sounds as if this band belongs on one of the compilations of weird and rare bands from San Francisco that were around in the late Sixties.
As well as Mariani and Hitchcock, the line-up is completed Rippled Souls bassist Stu Loasby and former drummer for The Drones Warren Hall, and they released their debut ‘Demon Blues’ in 2015, following up with this one a year later. They are very good at what they do, but for me there just isn’t enough variety throughout the whole album to make it sufficiently interesting. In small doses this is fine, and would be perfect if they had a song on one of the aforementioned compilations, but for a complete album it isn’t really the sort of music I listen to. But, they are very good at what they do, and if this style of music is interesting then this is someone that you should look out for.
