Leathers: Platano Macho

Leathers: Platano Macho (KM Records) CD | DL Out now 4.0 out of 5.0 stars4.0 Leathers return with Platano Macho; another dose of their stripped-down, funky, primitive trash-garage. BUY HERE Dry and slightly bitter, simple and yet full of goodness once cooked. There must be a reason behind trash-garage duo Leathers' decision to name their latest offering Platano Macho. To the core, it is packed with the kind of soul-inflected garage that turns Jon Spencer's juices into overdrive, whips up a proto-Cramps stripped-back hellish call, and just beckons you into its Gories-like groove. Rolling in with Whiplash, the duo rumble and yelp through a barely two-and-a-half-minute back-to-basics blast. The sonics are lo-fi to the very core. No frills, no solos; their only give to a possible overdub is a lone spiking organ that adds a touch more of that proto-punk vibe. This is clearly the direct sound of two trash-heads in the tiniest room known to humankind. Amp to the ears, never a click track in sight and have at it. Garage-rock is rarely purer. On songs like Noon And Night and Party People, they really do channel their inner Mick Collins to the full. One wonders what they would do if faced with a bass. The guitars, despite being only a duo, refrain from being drenched in distortion, the kind of trick that replaces the force of a three-piece with a sandblasting sound. Here, slightly overdriven, just enough to add a touch of bite from the amp, the devil is revealed in the riffs. Repeated and hypnotic, never descending into an all-out wail, the focus is on the groove. Leathers are not about wowing you with their noodling complexity; they are a band that tap into your lizard brain and just make you want to move your feet. The couplet of S Hot and Sick that close out the album are cases in point as the tumble through that Jon Spencer adoration. Platano Macho is a bunch of songs that drip in that early Detroit proto-garage by way of New York No Wave. A simple blast from better days gone by. Peel it and let Leathers into your life. PLATANO MACHO de LEATHERS FACEBOOK | BANDCAMP ~ All words by Nathan Whittle. Find his Louder Than War archive here.