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“I’ve always liked what the most influential Frenchman in London is up to…Dustaphonics album ‘Big Smoke: London Town ”… it’s a crazy no holds barred white knuckle ride from start to finish” Craig Charles on his BBC 6 Music Show
You have to be really good to get by in garage-rock’n’roll-soul these days, as there is minimal airplay and little media interest in independent bands, but hey, yes, The Dustaphonics are really good! They get airplay on BBC Radio, have been album of the day on Spanish national radio RTVE Radio 3, pack out London’s famous rock’n’roll and soul music venues such as the 100 club & Jazz Café, storm European and festival stages such as Latitude Festival, have opened for Wanda Jackson, James Hunter, Kid Congo, Jim Jones Revue, Barrence Whitfield, Lisa & The Lips, Gallon Drunk, Sanseverino, Sam Gopal, have been “on a mission from God” with legendary actor and Blues Brother Dan Aykroyd, who occasionally uses The Dustaphonics as the backing band for his private London shows.
Yes, The Dustaphonics are really good; they have been shaking up the London scene with an unique, excitingly energetic party groove sound that distills such wide-ranging influences as 50s R&B, 60s garage rock, vintage soul, blues, surf & 77 punk rock. They are far from simple imitators; they bring new energy and a positive vibe which makes their songs remarkably fresh and distinctly modern. With a production sense that carefully preserves the passionate rawness of the music, but combines it with a clean, solid, strong, deft and transparent approach, they offer the best possible sound to both purist vintage music fans and those who want something fresh with a young pretty face.
Since 2012 the previously fluid line-up has solidified around the Anglo-French nucleus of talented, fun, young, charismatic, energetic force of nature singer Hayley Red and founder-producer-guitarist Yvan Serrano–Fontova (a kind of rock’n’roll version of Jane Birkin &Serge Gainsbourg), with tighter-than-tight rhythmic backing provided by powerhouse musicians such as Eric Frajria or Bruce Brand on drums and Dan Whaley or Devid Dell'Aiera on bass.
Yvan Serrano-Fontova is one of London’s key underground figures; guitar-man, DJ, song writer and entertainment promoter, has long been presenting exciting new talents & vintage revue style shows around London and Lille (Fr) with his “Raison D’être London Music Collective” and as DJ Healer Selecta was signed by Freestyle Records in England. He has DJed for London shows by Bo Diddley, The Sonics, Chuck Berry, Ike Turner, Eartha Kitt, Wanda Jackson, Dick Dale, Manu Chao, etc...) Yvan first came from his native France to London in the early 90s, when the legendary John Peel was playing the US & UK single on BBC Radio 1 by Yvan’s Guitar Surf Garage Orchestra “Showman & The Thunderous Staccatos”. In the late 90s he collaborated with Liam Watson (Toe Rag Studio’s legendary genius) and in 2008 started his new project; The Dustaphonics, when the cult B movie actress Tura Satana (Russ Mayer‘s Faster Pussycat Kill Kill) asked Yvan’s to create the sound track for her new project (she also co-wrote with him the Dustaphonics song “Burlesque Queen”). This led to the 2009 mini LP and single "Burlesque Queen" and the first full album "Party Girl" in 2011 and now “Big Smoke London Town”, with its fantastic sound and attitude in which nostalgic Americana clashes head-on with a heady London attitude to create one of this year’s most energetic and vital releases. |
