Rip It! finds Powersolo doing what they do best: tearing up the rulebook and assembling their own gloriously crooked version of Rock 'n' Roll from the rubble. After three decades of donkey-kicking holes through the walls of good taste, Kim Hjorth Jeppesen and Charles Lee Shapiro have created a wonderfully deranged collection inspired by their shared obsession with the forgotten corners of music history. Drawing on strange compilation LPs, novelty records, regional oddities, accidental genius and what they call the Garage Future, Rip It! is a wildly unpredictable record that refuses to behave like a normal Rock 'n' Roll album.
Recorded at The Basement and produced by Powersolo, Rip It! features an unusually colourful supporting cast including drums and percussion, strings, baritone saxophone and a whole gang of backing vocalists, adding even more texture to the band's already unpredictable sound. From the opening Habibi Bob through What's The News?, No Likes and the closing Bad Food And Violence, this is an album that constantly keeps you guessing.
For anyone who likes their Garage Rock 'n' Roll with the strange bits left in, Rip It! is a seriously entertaining proposition. Powersolo have created an album that feels deliberately unpredictable, occasionally ridiculous and consistently catchy, with enough bizarre ideas to reward repeated plays. For adventurous listeners who prefer their Rock 'n' Roll crooked, eccentric and gloriously difficult to pigeonhole.
