Various Artists — Black Lace And Voodoo Drums – Lux And Ivy Dig That

Black Lace And Voodoo Drums is the next in the seemingly unending 'Lux and Ivy' series of compilations from Righteous. It once again finds respected music journalist Dave Henderson compiling together rare, campy, and wacky 45s from the 1950s and 1960s. And for this thirty-track and sixty-nine-minute release the focus is crude to novelty bound Rock ‘n’ Roll, a few quirky genre curios, oh and as its title promises some Voodoo drums too.

As always with this series the disc comes presented in a clear jewel case- this features an eight-page inlay booklet, with a few-page write-up about the compilation tracks and their themes by Mr Henderson. Also, well as dotting’s of 45’s vinyl labels, and inversed colourized retro pictures.

The CD moves from Cousin Herbert Henson’s “Lose my Mind” with its scabbling ‘n’ wonky jiving guitars, manic backing vocals, and uneven croon ‘n’ bays of the male lead singer. Onto the stomping ‘n’ twanging of “Sugar Diabetes”, which is by Eddie Banks, and finds him giving a smoked and roughed honeyed vocal performance. There is the clip-clop drums, smoking horn fills, comic her-in-doors spoken word elements, and lo-fi jungle sound effects of “You Tarzan, Me Jane” by Dan Kubiak & The Sound Waves.

Midway through we have the slighty wonky ‘n’ wavering doo whoop of The Vibrator's “Cave Man”. Further in there is the deranged sawing horns, messy-to-slapping drums, muffled hollering vocals, and 'timber' shouts of Wee Willies & Soulettes “Pulp Wood Charley”. We have the slicing ‘n’ bounding percussion toll meets sliding warbling vocals of Aki’s “Voodoo Drums”. Or there’s Atlantis’s “The Blue Bells” which is an instrumental track built around bubbling water sounds, slowly swing ‘n’ bounding keys, snapping drums, and a great haunting auto harp solo.

So, in finishing I’d say Black Lace And Voodoo Drums is up to the (largely) consistent standards of previous 'Lux and Ivy' releases. With Mr Henderson showing once again he knows how to build an entertaining, quirky, and varied compilation.