SCREWTOP DETONATORS "3,2,1 I'm Done"  (OFF THE HIP)

"It's little wonder the West Australian secessionist movement refuses to die. Having failed at it's first attemp (despite popular support) seventy years ago, the resources boom, regular sporting success and a demonstratable parochial pride that verges on arrogance have combined to fuel underpin a local feeling that somehow Australia's western region could excise itself from it's eastern cousins and run its own sovereign show.

Add to that the quality of the Western Australian music scene - past and present - and things are even more move volatile. That said, the fact that another WA band, the Screwtop Detonators, decided to move east to melbourne suggests the current plan might be invasion by stealth, rather than violent secession. Then again, and far more likely, the Screwtop Detonators are simply inerested in playing rock'n'roll, and buger all stupid anarchronistic national politics. That the Screwtop Detonators have an eye and ear for rock'n'roll shall never be in question - especially if you cop a listen to the band's album 3,2,1 I'm Done. It's apparent from the opening rumbling rhythms of God Knows, replete with the type of pub rock nihilism that breathes within the finest of Australian rock'n'roll. It looks you square in the eye in the power pop meets speedway rock on See You Cryin', thumps you in the midriff in the album's stand out rock'n'roll track, Anvil, and slaps you down in the final track, Transparent. Add to that the Eastern Dark surf and turf edge of Be around, and the picture is just about complete.

Yet there's a bit of subtlety in the mix as well - you can hear a bit of brilliance of Johnny Casino in In The First Place, Walking might be an early morning confusion of a man who's spent the night - literally and metaphorically - walking away from something he neither liked, nor understood. On The Run has a sly, Twin Peaks meets Stems introspective touch to it, like stumbling along a Fremantle beach and finding someone wrapped in plastic.

Like the once pursuit of Australian rules, rock'n'roll is a simple game , but you've got to believe in what you're doing. There's not a skerrick of a doubt the Screwtop Detonators are passionate to the rock'n'roll cause."

PATRICK EMERY