New Musical Express Magazine, 12-2-72

PATTO

"Roll ‘Em Smoke ‘Em
Put Another Line Out"
(Island)

By Ian MacDonald

      
If you’re going crazy and you’re looking for some soundtrack music to help you on your way, this is the month’s best buy.

This is Patto’s third album (the first two were for Vertigo) and features them in a looser, "live"-er environment than before. Drummer John Halsey gets a chance to do a couple of his comedy routines, of which the better is the rude "Mummy", and the band blow with delicate attack and a shattering sound through a programme of some of the silliest songs you’re likely to hear this side of Alpha Centauri.

Best is the James Brown tribute "Singing The Blues On Reds", but "Flat-Footed Woman" slams it pretty close and the breathless barnstormer "Turn Turtle" isn’t far behind.

A great party record (providing your friends are strange) and an exemplary production job by the boys themselves, featuring especially a brain-shaking drum sound that might even take over from the Ringo Crash as the percussion noise of the nineties.

Handle with trepidation and only if wearing snake-proof trousers – Ian MacDonald.
      

 

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