Night of The Hunter – Creature With The Atom Brain (Waste My Records) reviewed by Dave Franklin

Although initially a one-man recording project for Aldo Struyf between tours with Millionaire and The Mark Lanegan Band, Creature With The Atom Brain soon became a fully-fledged band of musicians with a heritage that threaded through the likes of Evil Superstars, Hitsville Drunks and Condor Gruppe. After making a name for themselves as cartographers of strange, psychedelic landscapes across 3 full length albums and via supports to some iconic bands, Night of The Hunter is the bands swansong, their final mercurial act. And as a parting musical shot it is perfect, summing up the breadth of the bands music and the scope of their creative vision. Presented as 5 long, untitled pieces it wanders across musical borders with wilful disregard.

Rooted in hypnotic psychedelic grooves that speak to the heart rather than the head, this platform is used as a base from which to assault the senses with weapons as diverse as clattering eastern vibes, skewed Latin guitars, dark disco-dirges, psychedelic wig-outs and anything else that passes across their eclectic vision. It seems the perfect way to put the decade long project to bed, with their most consistent album to date, or at least one that sums up most concisely the collision of ideas that could all too often confused the listener. And with guest appearances from Struyf’s inner circle, Mark Lanegan, Tom Barman, Tim Vanhamel, Dave Reniers and others, it also acts as a fitting end of term party. Creature With The Atom Brain may not have lived particularly fast or died particularly young but there is no doubting that in Night of the Hunter they left a beautiful musical corpse.