Kings Of Hong Kong – Sonic Thrills

Kings Of Hong Kong are back with Sonic Thrills, a 14-track album that sees the domino masked primitive beat maestros venture further into their garage trash / psychobilly mash up. Night Gang & The Machines Of Trouble continues their habit of opening up with an instrumental, as a guitar breaks through a battery of 60’s space station bleeps, before a tight monster truck rhythm kicks in, all of which perfectly sets you up for the guitar possession of The Driver complete with a beat that propels you around a hardwood floor, and all the while Chris Martin’s ravaged vocal imploring you to “drive on”.

Snake Pit ups the pace, and will have those mosh pits clattering – Kings Of Hong Kong are fuelling the psychobilly storm with their own brand of sleazy rock n’ roll, Greg Ikin has those drums pounding, a slap bass is being hammered courtesy of Mik Garvey, and a fuzzed out guitar is definitely in the red zone, yet within the mayhem there are some neat vocal harmonies, similarly during Guillotine which adopts a more traditional rockabilly vibe complete with vibrating cow-poke guitar.

Subterraneans is aptly dark; a sinister lyric duels with a reverb laden guitar riff that would strip paint, similarly the moody Scuba Man which has a blackened ultra tight rhythm, barked vocals, and a tumultuous surf guitar vibe from the enigmatic Marcel The. Remaining in the shadows they unleash Swampland, a zombie paced psychobilly gem, there is something almost hypnotic at work here… drawing you into their world. Buried deep in my own collection I have an album by Dutch techno punk / garage band Nazis From Mars, I only mention this as The Kings Of Hong Kong now offer up Mexicans From Venus – my brain must have been sparked by the planetary naming session – anyway this one is an absolute Cramps infused stomper complete with a fuzzed riff Poison Ivy would have been happy to wrangle from that famous Gretsch 6120.

Haunted Mind bursts out of the radio static, that slap bass to the fore, hard hitting drums, a fierce rockabilly guitar lick and strong vocals keep this one pedal to the floor, equally so with Lost 24 which drags you “into the depths, where I can’t be found”, once again complete with some exemplary guitar work. Album closer Misery is a Cash-tinged bluesy masterpiece, complete with a lamenting whistle that weirdly fits snuggly within the mayhem. Kings Of Hong Kong don’t stick to the rules – for that we should be thankful, this is as twisted, as dark and as compelling as modern trash gets!

Kings of Hong Kong will be appearing at Can Your Pussy Do The Cramps 2 at Leicester’s The Donkey with Empress Of Fur, Mystery Action and Drugstore Cowboys on the 11th and 12th November with all profits going to Cats Protection. The band will then support The Monsters at Stockport’s Amp on the 16th November alongside Thee Windom Earles and The Mandelbrot Shakes.