Cato Salsa Experience

One of these days Scandinavia is going to run out of cool bands making spirited and fun music. That's fine, because at least then there'll be time for fans to savour the current bountiful backlog. Take this debut full-length effort from Norway's Cato Salsa Experience, for instance. What seems at first blush to be just another stylishly retro release from yet one more "skinny tie and skinnier trousers" band of wannabe Laplanders turns out to be a sweet, fuzzed-out, '60s-informed psychedelic garage rock tour de force. Wailing guitar feedback, a solid, full-bodied bass sound, big, ringing drums and an omnipresent tambourine are the common elements throughout these dozen sweat-inducing, dance floor-friendly tracks. What's uncommon is the band's penchant for coming up with fresh sounding riffs and arrangements despite the fact that most of its stylistic elements are older than the hills (providing those hills were erected about 35 years ago or so). Incidentally, there is a story behind the band's unfortunate name, but, alas, it is lame. Suffice it to say that guitarist/vocalist Cato Thomassen has a thing for Hendrix.