Alabama’s own Dan Sartain, after spending most of his career mining the darker and more dangerous edges of garage-infused rockabilly, seems determined to not be stuffed into any generic classification whatsoever. In 2012, he dropped a vicious, furious punk-rock LP, Too Tough To Live, that could almost have been a vintage Angry Samoans record, without the sense of humor.
After 2014’s DUDESBLOOD, which slightly returned to familiar turf, Sartain now drops a full-on electro a air with Century Plaza, with nary a guitar or drum kit in sight. Full of sequencers, analog synths and drum machines, Sartain whoops atop the beep-beep-beep through plenty of digital reverb, like he’s fronting the Human League. Given the decidedly noir lyrical bent of tunes like “Cabrini Green” and “Sinking In The Shallow End,” however, this is closer to vintage Suicide than “Don’t You Want Me.” A brave, cool and highly listenable move on Sartain’s part.
—Tim Stegall
