With Monsters & Gods

With Monsters and Gods' is The Hillbilly Moon Explosion's 2016 album release and is certainly one of their their best. Who knew that rock'n'roll could still be so exhilarating... and musically diverse? A half-English 4-piece hidden away in the unlikely habitat of Switzerland, they've honed their craft without distraction for many years. Searching for the right sound they've previously recorded in San Diego, Camden and Tooting, but for this album they went back to the local Swiss studio where they made their early rockabilly albums, allowing more time to get it spot on.

The line-up is chanteuse Emanuela Hutter, Oliver Baroni on vocals and stand-up bass, Duncan James on guitar and Sylvain Petite on drums; With Monsters and Gods is also embellished by Oliver's latent piano skills. The esteemed Pete Thomas provided saxophone.

On this 2016 album, they open with psychedelia meets 50s sci-fi of In Space the following 13 songs are an aural treat firmly rooted in established musical styles (rockabilly, r'n'b etc.). However, with Emanuela's vocals you get "this weird distinctly non-American approach to singing" creating a unique sound.

With contributions including Spark Phillips of Demented Are Go and mariachi horns courtesy of Calexico, a song that makes you want to start throwing stuff around to and another reimagining Blondie recording in the 50's, you have a very special album from a band that is not only at ease with themselves but one that's at it's full creative tilt and in the ascendant.

The band are quite an online and vinyl phenomenon, boosted by the My Love For Evermore single, a duet with Spark Phillips that leads their Youtube takeover with over 20 million views. More recently they issued an album 'The Sparky Sessions'.