As a general rule, you should always be suspicious of DJs who think that they can make ‘real’ records. In the case of Pete Pamf, however, we should definitely make an exception.
He was, after all, a musician before he started plying his trade around the cooler Dublin nightime establishments – heading the delightfully named Pussy Ass Motherfuckers, a band that also featured Kila’s Brian Hogan. Prone To Abuse, his solo debut, revisits the funk rock sound of that band but gives it a unique twist.
Thankfully, the template owes more to the non-regulation influences of G Love & Special Sauce than it does the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and the like, bringing in the soul, hip-hop and underground guitar scene of his native US. In fact, the album almost moves in the same circles as the Republic Of Loose record, referencing a world beyond the limits of most of the capital’s guitar bands.
As with a lot of solo albums (Pamf plays pretty much everything) it could have done with a touch of extra editing – we could certainly live without the tuneless Butthole Surfers cover – and some of the humour is a little too stoner schoolboy, but any record that features Nina Hynes cooing like a sex kitten is alright by us. Out there but worthy of investigation.