Album Review: DeWolff - DeWolff IV

Heard much music from the Netherlands lately? Okay, okay, they've got themselves a few DJs (Armin Van Buuren, Tiesto, Fedde Le Grand) and they spawned Vengaboys, but aside from dance music and the odd metal outfit, there's not much coming out of Holland that most Australian audiences would be familiar with. Well, that changed a few weeks back with the Dutch trio DeWolff's maiden trip down under. They tore stages up across the country, courtesy of their blues-infused psych rock, winning plenty of new fans in the process. As an added bonus, DeWolff have not only released DeWolff IV in Australia, but also their first two, previously unreleased (in Australia) albums.

So what does DeWolff IV sound like? Take the energy and talent of Wolfmother and subtract their posing, then add some space for experimentation and a hell of a lot of reverb, and you've got one kick-ass record. DeWolff IV, however, is an album of two halves. The first is a straight up rock'n'roll record, from rockabilly (Crumbling Heart) to southern blues (Voodoo Mademoiselle), and spans the first six songs on the album. 

The second half takes a left turn, stepping into space-rock territory where the laws of traditional rock music are oft-ignored. Spanning the course of the final five tracks and nearly 20 minutes, a collection of numbers sub-titled A Mind Slip is just that. In this incarnation, DeWolff wear their Pink Floyd influences on sleeves, enlisting the help of string sections and flutes to get the point across that they are not just about rocking out with their balls to the wall.

It completes an intriguing record that is sure to take you in directions you previously daren't take.