Album Review: Lords Of Wong - Club Bistro

Opening with the dirty dirge of B.S.B., it's clear that despite the wait, Lords Of Wong aren't about to change gears on new record Club Bistro. Kicking on from where Enter The Wong left off, the record is one stream-of-consciousness meander through the depraved rock that the five-piece revel in.

Priapism lurches along like a punch-drunk barfly, arms flung wide, willing all and sundry to come at him. The triptych of tracks coming in at three-minutes-and-18-seconds – Reconditioned Motor, Sacrificial Lamb and Pseudo Relationship Addiction – are an exercise in grizzled aggression, soused seduction and finger-licking goodness, all chugging guitar and incessant drumbeats, with Jimmy Wong straining his vocal chords and tearing out his chest hair in passionate desperations – the sweat flies from the speakers. Robin Williams Insult is punk rock anguish, while Walk On swirls and dives like a Turbonegro country tribute band. This is the kind of dirty rock where anything could, and indelibly does happen. Its breakneck pace is kept on the rails from some bare-bones production from Donovan Miller, and opting to keep the banter and muffled chatter in the recording process as segues between songs is a masterstroke, making the purging all the more immediate.

But in many ways the coup de grace is the central title track. Undulating to almost eight minutes in length, Club Bistro is a warbled stagger through a drug-fuelled meltdown, the kind of melting psych that seems the polar opposite to the breakneck abandon that bookends it from both sides. The vocals from Sabrina Lawrie are the cherry on top.

Lords of Wong have never been about subtlety, and Club Bistro is the reason why.