The Dry Tortugas are a Berlin based neo-Rockabilly band formed in lockdown and featuring Felix and Marc from Lota Red with Tom from the Roughnecks along with the ‘very young, very talented Robin’ whom the band rightly say, ‘plays as if he had done nothing else but slap the bass since his childhood.’ This album, Two Sides, came as a complete surprise to me and a very pleasant one too.

‘Up and Down’ is straight out of the gate, up-tempo rockabilly, that initially sounds like ‘Slippin In’, there is great twangy guitar alongside splendid stabs of chords and with the chorus, ‘going up, going down, going up and down in the underground’ it is a little reminiscent of a section from the Polecats’ ‘Big Green Car’, but overall, this is quite splendid neo-rockabilly. Second track ‘Unbothered’ has elements of Long Tall Texans in terms of the use of melody as well as the excellent bass playing. Track 3 ‘Slidin’ is built around a chugging guitar riff before the band takes things double time, with the guitar strumming on the off-beat, with a very melodic chorus and nice guitar work. ‘Alive’ is a jaunty number with some elements of Stressor. ‘Meanwhile’ features some superb guitar work, splendid splapping, cool drums and very nice melody. It caps off a superb side of neo-rockabilly.

Side B kicks off with a terrific live version of ‘Up and Down’ which is easily as good as the studio version. In fact, it has a tremendous energy and very prominent double bass which gives it the edge over Side A’s version. ‘I Don’t Care’ is easiest the heaviest song on the album, once again the bass playing is terrific, in fact, the whole rhythm section is pretty awesome. ‘Winter in June’ is a very nice country-rockabilly song with some lovely picking. The song is about climate change an unusual topic for this genre, but refreshingly. ‘Shoot Me To The Moon’ rekindles the energy in fantastic form with a class up-tempo song. ‘Thanks’ concludes things in wonderful style with a delightful rocker with terrific use of dynamics and a superb guitar solo and a false ending. Taken as a whole, it has to be said, that this is an absolutely superb debut album that showcases both the studio and live work of one of the very best neo-rockabilly bands to come across my radar in quite some time. This is quite outstanding.

Nick Kemp

Buy music from the Dry Tortugas here