Sasha and The Shades are a rootsy South London sextet who have an individual jaunty functionality: which fluctuates between uplifting Americana and an unrequited ‘last orders’ downbeat essence a la early Tom Waits.
This is clearly evident in the title track of their latest EP Girls – all about the highs and lows of everyday butterflies in your tummy sexual politics.
The song is instantly captivating with a clipped Stones/Flying Burrito Brothers guitar riff shaking hands with the guilty pleasure of Hot Chocolate’s ‘You Sexy Thing’. Then there are the transatlantic trading vocals of vocalists Sasha Adamczewski and Eli-Rose J Sandford unashamedly and brilliantly stuck in an early 60s time warp akin to The Raelettes and Lee Hazlewood/Nancy Sinatra.
By contrast, the EP’s second song ‘Morning Blues’ jumps ahead a few short years to the hallowed throes of bad trip blues redolent of The Stones’ early 1968 renewed creativity circa ‘Child Of The Moon’ and ‘Sympathy For The Devil’. Such aesthetic despondency also progresses into world-weary territory hinting at the Lucifer-fixated 70s career high points of both John Martyn and Roky Erickson.
This release functions like a classic late-period Beatles single release – unafraid to display a different genre per vinyl side. Such reverence is a definite must. The Shades have got it nailed.
