Inca Babies: Ghost Mechanic 9
Vinyl | CD | DL available at Bandcamp
Black Lagoon Records
Released 29th November 2024
Goth survivors Inca Babies return with their 9th album, expertly showcasing their sleazy blues rock.
The Inca Babies getting back together in 2007 has proven to be one of the most productive and worthwhile reunions of recent times. Not content with hitting the nostalgia package tour circuit and playing old favourites, they have instead released four albums of new material that pick up the trail from when they disbanded in the late 80s and have allowed the Inca Babies flame to continue its low burn.
As well as this, lead Baby Harry Stafford has released two solo albums and two albums with Marco Butcher. He is clearly a driven man.
And to this impressive body of work, we can now add new Inca Babies album Ghost Mechanic 9.
One of the most impressive things about being an Inca Babies fan back in the day was watching them develop their influences and obsessions and evolving their sound, developing a swampy blues all of their own. This sound is still present to this day, as Ghost Mechanic 9 proves.
While there are obviously going to be parallels between Inca Babies records and Stafford’s extra curricular efforts, the recent run of Inca Babies albums still have the classic sound of old, whereas his efforts outside the band have perhaps allowed him to veer off the path a little.
Ghost Mechanic 9 kicks off with the title track and straight away we are drawn into a world of sleazy trash rock. A fuzzed up guitar line and a bass drum introduce us to Ghost Mechanic 9, but soon enough the rest of them take their cues and the classic Inca Babies sound kicks in.
The track is full of trebly attack, with a rolling drum beat and some effective piano chords adding to the atmosphere. Stafford’s vocals are weary and tattered, which suits the song’s vibe.
Insect Symphony starts with some scattered percussion that put me in mind of the insects in Quatermass and the Pit, perhaps intentionally. Guitar stabs punctuate the rolling bluesy bassline in a manner that (almost) reminds me of AC/DC and the song does indeed have a harder, rockier sound.
Things slow down a little with Augustus Tympan, with its prowling bassline, sleazy guitar lines and clattering percussion. Stafford’s vocals are low in the mix and seem to be coming from far, far away. The combined result of all this is a great, claustrophobic song that is instantly recognisable as Inca Babies. Few bands so far into their career can be said to have carried their flame so consistently and to have stuck to the traits that define them and that made them such a cool band in the first place.
I’m Stayin’ Put, a sluggish growl of a song, does little to dispel this menacing atmosphere. There is an enjoyable hint of threat or danger to the songs here, and an image leaps into my mind of a troubled man worriedly looking over their shoulder in a dimly lit back alley, a smell of cheap but potent liquor in the air. This is one area where Inca Babies have always affected me, in conjuring up noir images to suit the cinematic music they make.
Next track The Exhaust Of Broken Dreams continues the languor of the last few songs, a slow, weary tempo with a 50s groove, helped along by the spooky organ sounds. It sounds exhausted, again demonstrating Inca Babies ability to create atmosphere.
Spacewalk adds contrast to the album with a rockabilly rumble. The effect is instantly uplifting and get the toes a-tapping. This is not to say that the songs up to this point have been anything of a let down, I have always been a sucker for downtempo melodrama, but the change of atmosphere gives a real uplift.
Mercury Is Down keeps the pace going and adds some excellent early Rowland S Howard-esque guitar. Despite the faster beats, Inca Babies are never far away from a dark edge of some kind to their songs, something that no doubt endeared them to the goth crowd when they first appeared.
Next song Deck starts off with some Totally Wired style drumming and an ominous synth throb. An electronic Inca Babies is something new, but again they retain their signature sound, soon adding shards of guitar and an angry bass into the mix. The pace is again upbeat and Ghost Mechanic 9 is proving to be a record of two halves, one slow and deliberate and the other more in your face and shouty.
Ghost Mechanic 9 finishes with Opium Dub, a rework of their 1987 track Opium Den, slowing the original down and adding touches of maturity to the original. It is a neat way to finish the album, a nod to the past and a look to the future.
Ghost Mechanic 9 is a worthy addition to Inca Babies already impressive canon. Age has not changed their sound unduly or honed their essential rough edges. Nine albums in and Inca Babies are still finding glory in the gutter along with the menace in that glory.
Long may they continue.
Buy Ghost Mechanic 9 here.
Inca Babies online:
Bandcamp
Facebook
All words by Banjo, you can find his Louder Than War archivehere
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