Artist: The BoschTitle: Hurry UpLabel: Self-Released
Hurry Up is the debut EP from The Bosch, a New York City quartet (guitar, bass, sax/keys, and drums) that has been compared variously to Lou Reed, Joey Ramone, Brian Wilson, and Dick Dale. I’m not quite hearing that, though I can get where it comes from. Hurry Up seems to be informed by doses of east and west coast 1960s rock, taking unequal parts of Ramone’s energy, Reed’s decadence, and Dick Dale’s raucousness. Andrew Raff’s sax riffs tend to boldly shoulder themselves to the front of one’s attention; it’s inaccurate to compare The Bosch to Rockets From The Crypt, but that much under-appreciated aggregation would be a proper reference point as well.
The seven tracks on Hurry Up are of varying quality, though there is nothing really awful on here. If there is a problem on Hurry Up it’s that a couple of tracks stand head and shoulders above the rest. Counting, an instrumental, permits The Bosch to show off their stuff, and even if you’re not wild about instrumentals you should hear this one loud and repeatedly. Brooklyn Cars is another standout that for some reason puts me in the mind of ? & the Mysterians; it’s probably the organ and the sing-along nature of the tune, not to mention the energy which ? & The Mysterians exhibited in concert which was never quite captured on their studio recordings. Back To Reality however, is the treasure here, a track that threatens to shake loose of the player and take off into the stratosphere. I say without exaggeration that it would be worth whatever travel time it would take to attend a Bosch performance just to hear this song live. It has simply got to be a showstopper, a song that jumps out of the gate at the very beginning and never stops building. Back To Reality is simultaneously very “now” and very retro; if it had presented as a track that was played live in roadhouses during the 1950s, I wouldn’t have been surprised.
Back To Reality is worth the price of Hurry Up’s admission all by itself, but don’t miss the rest of the disc particularly the least three sides. The Bosch manages to evoke familiarity even as they sound like no one but themselves. Jump on now.
