King Khan and His Shrines

For those who don’t know, ex-Spaceshits bassist Blacksnake has been living in Germany for several years where he now fronts his own band King Khan and his Shrines. He’s adopted a crazy voodoo man image reminiscent of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and his band, the Shrines, are a horn-fuelled garage soul party waiting to happen. King Khan doesn’t have the deepest or richest voice for the kind of material they’re doing and the band could never be confused for the Stax house musicians, but the energy and songwriting is top flight here which more than makes up for any and all shortcomings. Songs like "Torture" and "Kookamonga Boogaloo" are total dance party tracks for the garage set and one can only imagine how great they must be live. Of the nine songs here, the other stand-out is the down-tempo ballad "Que Lindo Sueno.” Jump on a plane to Germany or pray for a King Khan North American tour soon.