Transplants

Description

.co.uk So, something such as Transplants is what ska-punks do in their spare time. Over the period between January 2000 to June 2002, Rancid's guitarist and vocalist Tim Armstrong was sat in his basement studio, laboriously poring over loops and samples, collecting synth-squeals and snatches of howling guitar and, naturally, writing songs. Aided by raging rapper Rob Aston, he's put it all together to form this often intriguing and strangely beguiling side project. The opening's not promising. With the death-riff of "Romper Stomper" followed by the urban R & B and chanted party-rock chorus of "Tall Cans in the Air", you get the awful feeling that Armstrong is dealing in lowest common denominators here. But then his Clash-obsession kicks in once more, his Mick Jones-aping vocal darkly murmuring over the reggae-come-rock of "D.J.D.J.". This London-Kingston-California hybrid is thoroughly weird, initially comical, but oddly touching. It rings out again in "Weigh on My Mind", and "Diamonds and Guns", with its Sex Pistols' marching intro, rollicking piano and Stonesy woo-woos, while the closing "Down in Oakland" is an enthusiastic take on the Clash's later spaghetti western reggae. These, and Armstrong's sonic experimentations, provide interest, with adrenalin added by bursts of searing punk-metal. Though Aston's outbursts are often confrontational in the most predictable and tedious sense, Transplants are genuinely something new. --Dominic Wills