Derik And The Disasters – Derik And The Disasters

Did anyone actually believe that the grandfather of punk would ever really just give up and fade away once the UK Subs were done and dusted. Well of course they didn’t, Charlie Harper is, and has always been, the reluctant hero/legend of the punk music scene. He has been completely all in and never afraid to up the game, no matter how long it takes. Hence all his ardent fans will be excited to hear the new collaboration with Del Greening (Peter & The Test Tube Babies) on guitar, Vicky Smith (The Ramones) on Bass, and Marley Perez (Charlie’s grandson) on Drums.

What clear right from the start of this, Derik & The Disasters debut self titled album, is that it’s not an album full of UK Subs, Peter & The Test Tube Babies or Ramonas sounding music, this is truly of its own and as fresh as you could ever want. ‘Divide’ throws its hat into the ring at the off, it gives us a soundscape thats filled with foreboding, a song that says everything about the world as it stands, a place thats feels even more divided now than when Punk first hit Charlie’s soul. We all know how Charlie and his band have spent so many years railing against everything thats wrong in the world, how punk itself was a revolution, but to start a new punk band at this moment in time feels a right and just cause, just as it did back then. Possibly even more now, as the fight has gotten even more real. Every song on this album is of its time, nothing harks back to the past, it deals with what’s around us right now. ‘New Palestine’ does exactly what you think it should, ‘Clickbait’ deals with the never ending doom scrolling and attention grabbing phenomenon of social media and the internet in general, and ‘Strait Of Hormuz’ is as on point as you can be today. But lets just stop a second, the latter is a song thats as rooted in Jazz as you can ever want to be, this instrumental says everything that needs to be said about the current state of affairs, without actually having to say anything, thats how relevant it is.

Groundbreaking is what people have always thought about The UK Subs, and Peter & the Test Tube Babies for that matter, and with this album, nothing has changed. It’s full of musical wonder, it never shies away from adding brass when its needed, keyboard and harmonica as and when it suits, but what’s a constant throughout is a guitar, bass and drum sound that compliments each other in a way only these musicians can. There’s nothing old hat in here, no matter the combined age of this group, this is as new and exciting as you could ever want from a debut album. I’ve purposely not spent paragraphs reeling through every song in this review, because putting it on for the first time and grabbing every note and word without any written baggage is just how this album should be listened to. Slip on your headphones, drop the needle on the vinyl, and just fucking enjoy the unadulterated minute and revolution of it.

Derik And The Disasters will be released via Damaged Goods Records on October 30th