CLASSICS OLD AND NEW ON CATHARTIC RUTS DC ‘ELECTRACOUSTIC VOLUME 2’
OUT today via Sosumi Recordings, from RUTS DC, ‘ElectrAcoustiC Volume Two,’ the follow up to ‘Volume One’ which was recorded in-between lockdowns in 2020.
“I must confess when we finished the first one, I didn’t really think there’d be a second ElectrAcoustic album,” said bassist and vocalist, John ‘Segs’ Jennings. “But with the added weaponry from the new album it all seemed to fall into place, and there’s no less than five new songs on this album.”
Whilst Ruts DC’s reputation as one of the most vibrant and high-energy forces to have emerged from the late seventies punk explosion is assured, the stripped-down acoustic side of their persona has developed in recent times, their catalogue of songs lending themselves perfectly to the unplugged method.
In 2022, the band followed their ‘Music Must Destroy’ album with the acclaimed ‘Counterculture?’ LP, giving them a new arsenal of songs to strip-down and refocus.
Gathering at drummer David Ruffy’s house with guitarist Leigh Heggarty, the band went through songs from the present, and the past, testing what would work well in the acoustic setting.
Cherry-picking some choice moments from ‘Counterculture?’ they also reached back to the original Ruts days with ‘Backbiter’, the anthemic ‘Staring At The Rude Boys’ and a sublime, ‘Love In Vain.’
“I guess ‘Volume Two’ has permitted us to reach back into more troubled times, bringing songs like ‘Despondency’ into a newfound light,” added Segs. “It’s a balancing act of past and present to be sure. What once was painful, finally becomes cathartic.”
Returning to Perry Vale Studios in Forest Hill, South London, the album was recorded by former Vibrators bassist Pat Collier, and mixed and mastered by Greg Wizard Fleming.
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