After several releases as Novo Homo, Bain Wolfkind, the drummer of Der Blutharsch, has released an album under his own nom de scène. A follow-up to the limited 7" "Love Letters", "Music for Lovers & Gangsters" is another night-cruise along the seedy streets of the red-light underworld where you expect to meet gun toting gangstas like the one who graces the front cover.

The music is a fusion of primitive rock 'n' roll, greasy blues, pimp funk, lysergic easy listening, jazz noir, retro electronics with a hint of stoned-out dub. Topped with deluded, deadpan vocals this heady mixture of Foetus, Nick Cave, Tom Waits and even the Stray Cats is served with enough aplomb to actually make it work. The lyrics of these crime ballads depict a world made up of pimps, whores, desperate loners, seasoned mobsters and all the other social outcasts that litter the stories written by Ellroy, Chandler, Bukowski or Burroughs. There is no weak song here and as the album progresses you are inevitably drawn into the desperate, dangerous atmosphere of ruthless streets, dark alleyways, sleazy strip joints, run-down bars and sordid hotel rooms. A real walk on the wild side...

'Music for Lovers and Gangsters' is one of the best albums released this year and is indispensable to any self-respecting member of the neo-folk/industrial mafia.