Fast cars and rock and roll. Don't they just belong together? There's few things more fun that speeding along in a convertible, top down, with some great loud music blasting out of your speakers. Or even if not a sports car, you might associate the rock dream with a Harley Davidson or a block-long limo whisking the star back to their hotel after a gig.
What you don't usually associate with the world of rock is agricultural transport, but Redbelly - formerly known as Tractor - seem to have a thing about the subject. Even their name comes from the name of a particular model of Ford tractor. But is the band name a reflection of the music?
I would guess that, for most people, one tractor is pretty much like every other tractor - you've seen one, you've seen them all - and, in a sense, Redbelly suffer the same problem. Though the music is played well, they sound an awful lot like certain other bands - namely, Alice in Chains and Stone Temple Pilots.
That's not to say every track sounds the same - they do vary the pace and mood from song to song - but just like the tractor is a very versatile piece of equipment, used for all kinds of things, from ploughing up fields to sewing seed, you can't escape the noise of all that heavy machinery. Even in their quieter moments, Redbelly can't escape the rumble of their own heavy machinery.
On the positive side, what they do, they do well - and given that this is their debut album, they'll have plenty of time to develop their own distinctive sound. Given that one track, the first single - "Fire In The Hole" - features a backward version of Jimi Hendrix' solo from "All Along The Watchtower", at least they're listening to the masters instead of exclusively to today's genre of the month. If you're a big fan of the Seattle sound and its derivatives, Redbelly should be for you. If not, you'll want to see if their Hendrix takeoffs continue on their sophmore effort.
