It is with a hoot, a holler, a hooley and much hubbub that Furious Frank announce their arrival to your stereo. Coming at your ears with near-criminal intent, "The Hobocamp Mudshow" is a wild and wonderful offering of sonic roots-rock with a slight Caribbean twist.
First, we steal into Mariachi territory on "Indianola". Interesting, considering it being a city in Mississippi. But it's the music we're on about. This could well be the music of a far-out marching band in Tijuana. And I mean that well - this is a fine opening track. The album does have one want of the listener: it wants you to dance. "Another Life" takes on a positively Baltic feel. Tempo tends not to stray much from a frantic pace which makes the listener's decision a whole lot easier. Dance, dummy, dance!
"Frank's Furious Eliksir" owes slightly to ska music but plenty of imagination on the part of the band negates the desire to fence in their sound. "Napun Seki" allows multi-instrumentalist Seung-a Park to assume lead vocals. Now they're threatening to go full-on oriental on the listener. However, since the instrumentation is so delightful, you won't mind. "Hunkr Down" is a little more conventional, sounding like a drunken Steve Earle meeting a now-sober Tom Waits on a chicken ranch. It must be said, this album is one hell of a journey. You'll feel slightly more cultured for having bought it.
Although maybe offering too much variety in the space of eight songs, it's testament to the effort of the band that such a scattergun effort can run so well. This was no shot in the dark. A glorious romp from start to finish.