THREE DIMENSIONAL TANX – ATTACK (CD, D/L).

Strange things are happening up North………..after spending most of this year listening to loads of bands that either sound like Neu!, Sonic Youth and Suicide fighting in a sack or Sabbath on a serious come down……..some excellent, some good, some not so good…….hearing the new album, Attack, from Lancastrian Space Punx Three Dimensional Tanx is a jolt to the system. It’s a full on barrage of unpretentious Nuggety Psychedelic Punk Rock that is part Stooges in space, Astral travel with the Buzzcocks, The Doors and The Damned jamming on one of the moons of Jupiter and The Ramones on acid (not such a weird concept, check out The Ramones Psych covers album Acid Eaters) and what it lacks a little in focus is made up in spades with sheer energy. With Doorsy keys, ferocious Punk guitars and a brutal Rock rhythm section, 3D Tanx have an early 80s Northern post Punk vibe about them when after late 70s “Year Zero” nihilism it was ok to admit to digging The Seeds and The Electric Prunes again and Manchester and Liverpool became a hotbed of Psych/Garage influenced bands with a strong Punk sensibility……..this even stretches to the album cover which has Linder inspired psychedelic punk cut ‘n’ paste artwork. Fuelled on snakebite and L.S.D., there is no messing about with 3D Tanx……….in the time it takes Heavy Metal bands masquerading as Stoner/Psych Cosmonauts to figure out ending a tedious Space jam, 3D Tanx have blasted through 12 songs and have gone down the pub……….urgent and dynamic, they are a band with a stunning live reputation that can be heard clearly on this new album.

3D Tanx sound like an amalgamation of every great Psych Rock/Garage Punk band from the last 50 years and at the same time like nothing you have ever heard before…………songs are stripped down to their pure essence with any excess trimmed right back to the bone and most of the tracks clocking in around a mean and lean 2 minute 30 mark. Basically, 3D Tanx are a Punk band playing Space Rock and once you get your head round that, Attack really makes sense. There are some absolutely brilliant tunes here……..’Scene Not Herd’ has a solid Stooges groove with some great Ron Ashton-esque squally soloing, ‘Do Electrical Shoes’ sounds like the Clash from the future (‘Ray Guns of Brixton’?????) and ‘Pink Spaceship (with a title straight outta Rodger Mellie’s Profanisaurus) is Punk Rock in Go-Go Boots. There are also a couple of “epics” on Attack………in Three Dimensional Tanx psychedelic five dimensional world, epic is around 5 minutes long…….’Trip Hazard’ a is swirly and…….er…..trippy instrumental where Country Joe & The Fish meet The Seeds head on and the album closer ‘Astral Plane Flight Attendant’ is the sound of the Modern Lovers on a collision course to the heart of a black hole. Truly fantastic stuff and if you are starting to tire of bloated, indulgent pseudo Psych Rock then you need to get your ears round this. 12 great songs in around 35 minutes then 3D Tanx are outta here…………

Attack is out NOW as a self-released CD by the band and is available along with a digital download from the Three Dimensional Tanx Bandcamp page https://threedimensionaltanx.bandcamp.com/.

THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN