The alchemical, revelatory rock’n’roll of The Datsuns is enough to make one believe that that there will always be kids who, fuelled by a hunger for noise and adrenalin, will discover rock’s archaic roots, its dusty grooves, rusted riffs and intact spirit, and recharge its soul with their energy, their enthusiasm, and their desire to do something new with it all.

Catch the Antipodean quartet at one of their sweaty, star-powered live shows – the ones where the long-haired firebrands will lay down their brutally concise, life-affirming rock’n’roll with an unfussy flair reminiscent of circus daredevils – or, better still, plug into the nefarious and immediate thrills of their electrifying second album, ‘Outta Sight/Outta Mind’, and it is immediately obvious that you’re in the presence of a group well-versed in the history of rock, but who’ve not allowed this scholarly knowledge to extinguish the pure lust for thrills that led them to their instruments in the first place. Not retro in the slightest, their noise rifles through rock’n’roll’s riffs and grooves like a thrift-store adept, before shooting a zillion volts of youthful adrenaline and punk-rock velocity through it, to reveal a sinewy mutant of Jimmy Page riffage, cock-rock swagger and the brutal economy and furious passion of punk-rock.

‘The Datsuns’ was a marvellous debut, its songs perfectly capturing the embryonic Datsuns sound – glam stomp, lascivious swagger and flammable quantities of energy all whipped together in songs like ‘MF From Hell’ and ‘Harmonic Generator’ which hit with the lean attack of the greatest pop music, and the considerable muscle of the heaviest rock. So charismatic were the album and accompanying, unforgettable live shows that even the most cynical corners of the media, whispering “Hype” as their star rose alongside that of The Hives and The White Stripes, changed their verdict to a much more preferable four-letter word: “Rock”.

Which brings us to ‘Outta Sight/Outta Mind’. That same energy and abandon which pulsed through their eponymous debut album in 2002 is still present – in fact, amplified even further – but this isn’t a retread of former glories. No, ‘Outta Sight/Outta Mind’ is the product of The Datsuns’ wild and unpredictable rock’n’roll rocket-ride, a ringside seat, if you will, for everything they’ve experienced these crazy couple of years.

“I can remember arranging ‘That Sure Ain’t Right’ at a sound check onstage in Japan, or playing ‘Messin’ Around’ about a year ago on tour, for the first time; working on the melodies for ‘What I’ve Lost’ on the tour bus in the middle of Arizona,” reminisces Dolf. “The first record was done in a rush, visceral, wild and manic. We captured that, but now we wanna capture some of our other influences and the other things that inspire us.”

Forget the misnomer of ‘Garage’ that the trend seekers ineptly saddled The Datsuns with – this album confirms them as keen carriers of the heavy rock torch. ‘Messin’ Around’ evokes a fecund southern rock groove redolent of Black Oak Arkansas or ZZ Top, while first single, the vicious ‘Blacken My Thumb’, lashes with more venom and vigour than you may have expected.

But the band have broadened their sound as well, allowing their songwriting chops to mature and grow. You can hear it in the whiskey-soaked punk-melancholia of ‘What I Lost’ and the brooding ‘Girl’s Best Friend’; which is not to say they don’t still have nuggets of dumb rock’n’roll glory in their quiver, as the stack-heeled glam stomp of ‘You Can’t Find Me’ confirms, an echo-laden gonzo holler worthy of The Sweet, or the gleefully stoopid ‘Hong Kong Fury’. And ‘I Got No Words’’ amp-blazing epic makes a fine closer for this set, every bit as cathartic and rewarding as the band’s own athletic show climaxes.
“It’s an album of stories,” explains Dolf. “Some perhaps mildly autobiographical, from us being on the road these past two years, the weird things, the people we’ve seen and met; the changes in our relationships with those around us. We’re constantly moving, constantly running from one drama or another.”

On hand to help the band fashion the album was John Paul Jones, legendary Led Zeppelin member and producer (Butthole Surfers, Diamanda Galas, Brian Eno).

“He very much helped us make the record we wanted to make,” explains Dolf. “We didn’t want to use a producer at all initially, we wanted to do it ourselves. However when we met him and talked about it, we decided that if we we’re going to do it with someone, it would have to be someone we respected and admired. We asked him, ‘How would you record us?’… He said, ‘Let’s do it really honestly, really simply, so it sounds like you four guys in a room.’ He summed up exactly what we wanted to do.

“I really love the idea that albums can be time capsules for a certain time and place, that when you hear that album you hear where the band were at, at that point in time,” muses Dolf. “You can hear that on this album, it’s very honest. I feel like I’ve got a bit more confidence now to say where I’m at, and what I’m thinking and feeling.
The distance between ‘The Datsuns’ and ‘Outta Sight, Outta Mind’ doesn’t just suggest a band unafraid of maturity, of growing-up and improving on what they’ve already done; it suggests that The Datsuns are the kind of band with a third, fourth, fifth album in them.

“It’s what a band should do,” smiles Dolf.

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