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"West Coast Highway Cosmic, Datura4's upcoming fourth album, sounds like it was made by a band that found a sheet of acid, the good stuff, tucked away in the back of the recording studio fridge, and rode it until the very last drop" Around the Sound GALLERY Load More

From the far distant shores of a Land Down Under comes "A way smokin' slab of psyched 'n furious jams, powered by amped up to 11 guitars and straight up boogaloo". (Vive le Rock UK). Fronted by iconic Aussie music legend Dom Mariani (The Stems, DM3, the Someloves) Datura4 combine full-tilt boogie, heavy psychedelia, blues and classic rock n roll. FULL TILT BOOGIE, BLUES AND PSYCHEDELIC ROCK! Emerging from the port city of Fremantle in 2009, Datura4 deliver a gutsy revival of boogie, blues, and psychedelic hard rock - fused with a sound that’s unmistakably their own. Led by Dom Mariani (The Stems, DM3), and featuring Warren Hall on drums, Stu Loasby on bass, Bob Patient on keys, and Joe Grech on guitar and vocals, the band has built a solid legacy with five critically acclaimed albums on US label Alive Natural Sound Records: Demon Blues (2015), Hairy Mountain (2016), Blessed is the Boogie (2019), West Coast Highway Cosmic (2020), and Neanderthal Jam (2022). Known for their explosive live shows, DATURA4 have toured extensively across Australia and Europe, carving out a reputation as one of the hardest-hitting bands on the circuit. Album number six is currently in the works—stay tuned. DISCOGRAPHY GET THEM HERE DATURA4 @ Clancy's Fish Pub Fri, 04 July Fremantle More info Details DATURA4 at El Grotto, Scarborough with Sascha Ion & The Piranhanahs Fri, 01 Aug El Grotto More info Details DATURA4 @ Buffalo Club Fremantle Sat, 30 Aug The Buffalo Club More info Details DATURA4 @ Rodney's Bait N Tackle Sat, 06 Sept Rodney's Bait n Tackle More info Details DATURA4 @ Wave Rock Weekender Fri, 26 Sept Wave Rock Weekender More info Details Load More Listen on Spotify

"West Coast Highway Cosmic, Datura4's upcoming fourth album, sounds like it was made by a band that found a sheet of acid, the good stuff, tucked away in the back of the recording studio fridge, and rode it until the very last drop" Around the Sound "FIVE AUST RALIAN BLOKES WALK INTO A BAR IN MARSEILLES ON A SUNDAY NIGHT AND JUST KILL IT" MARK 'MAD DOG' SHAW | GET READY TO ROCK UK "Five Australian blokes walk into a bar in Marseilles on a Sunday night……and just kill it." Having appreciated these guys from a distance and reviewed Datura4’s excellent trio of albums (Demon Blues, Hairy Mountain and Blessed Is The Boogie), GRTR!’s almost-fearless correspondant was not going to pass up the chance to see a cool band from Fremantle, Western Australia playing ten minutes down the road (okay, it’s a two hour drive but relative to Fremantle…a short hop). Damn fine it was too. Now, Sunday nights in a Marseilles suburb of this musically-snooty, jazz-masturbatin’ nation is a tough nut to crack for anyone, let alone a bunch of Antipodean blues rockers – it’s also right in the middle of the journey from a handful of Italian gigs to a handful of Spanish gigs so why not, right ? And therein lies the cut of Datura4s jib – fronted by long-time Aussie journeyman guitar-slinger and singer/songwriter, Dom Mariani – build the band’s European footprint bit-by-bit, give us 90 minutes of your time and as you wave our bus westward, we’ll leave you thinking “merde, what the fuck just happened ?”. The nicely balanced set drew heavily on the newest album, Blessed Is The Boogie, and featured pacey rockers like “Ooh Poo Pah Doo”, the title track and “Run With Lucy” as well as spacey beauties “City of Lights”, “Not For Me” and “Evil People Pt.2”. The inclusion of Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well” may be a personal favorite of the band……my only criticism – Datura4 (of which there are five) have enough slammin’ original material to not do covers. That’s picky, isn’t it ? Truth is you know you dig a band when you love the set and drive home listing the ones they didn’t play. “Confide In Me” from Hairy Mountain morphed into a punchy 12-bar jam and “Demon Blues” demonstrated Datura4’s ability to do dirty and dark as well as the power-pop which is clearly part of Mariani’s DNA. Spooky to me how much Mariani in full vocal flow, facially and “hirsutically” resembles very early ‘70s-era Joe Cocker. Some Fremantle-based, philosophical Aussie poet years ago said: “it’s a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll”. If he was still with us, he might have added “and it’s a fucking crowded space these days but make sure you go see Datura4”. This was my second time doing the Marseilles trek – both times to see an honest and proper blues rock band do their thing – and I loved it both times. Now what was the name of that other band? Oh yeah, The Rolling Stones – so I’ve got a 100% record of seeing top quality gigs over there. Credit to Datura4 for taking this to the people and being prepared to conquer Europe, one room at a time. Remember back when word of mouth built reputations ? A roomful of Sunday-night converts in Marseilles will be speaking approvingly in tongues to their jazz-confused neighbors for a while about this. Mark “Mad Dog” Shaw|Get Ready to Rock U K (October 2019) "It'll grab you like a Torana driver's handshake in the days before power steering." West Australian boogie masters DATURA4 return with their highly anticipated fifth album, “Neanderthal Jam”. Fronted by Dom Mariani of legendary Oz garage rockers The Stems, Neanderthal Jam is eleven new tracks of psychedelicised blues and full-tilt heavy rock that were jammed out and recorded at their favourite south-west farmhouse studio during the early months of 2021. Having already released 4 acclaimed albums on AliveNatural Records ‘Demon Blues’ (2015), Hairy Mountain (2016), Blessed is the Boogie (2019) and West Coast Highway Cosmic (2020), Neanderthal Jam sees them building upon and going beyond on another diverse collection of songs. Album opener ‘Going Back to Hoonsville’ gets things started with a relentless and pounding swing to get your hot wheels on. The jam is well and truly underway, and so the boogie gets heavy pursuing futile love in an inner sanctum on ‘Secret Society’ until the joyous organ groove and positive message of ‘Open the Line’ invites us to dance to the music. ‘Bad Times’ digs in on their OZ rock roots with a groove that the ‘Tatts’ (Rose Tattoo) would be proud of. ‘Black Speakers’ and title track ‘Neanderthal Jam’ keep the jams cooking with Bob Patient’s keyboard playing prowess on display proving what a welcome addition he has been to the band. An acoustic prelude that is ‘Hold My Life’ leads things into a pummelling boogie riff on ‘Worried Man’s Boogie’ and sets the scene for personal concerns about a world and the times we find ourselves in. Drummer Warren (Wazza) Hall thumps out the beat to ‘black and purple’ on full-throttle rocker ‘Digging My Own Grave’ and we meet the Witchdoctor who takes us for a ride on the bayou with the rhythmic ‘Fish Fry’ until we get back on the open road with the epic sun-kissed west coast closer ‘Drive-By Island’. Dom Mariani - Guitar and Vocals, Warren Hall - Drums, Stu Loasby - Bass, Bob Patient - Keyboards, Joe Grech - Guitar and Vocals

Datura4 returns to Rottnest Island with the cream of the Perth blues rock crop. Ticketed event More info HERE.

Big thanks to TONE Scott at Goldmine magazine for the great rave for Invisible Hits in his December 2023 edition of Eclectic Discoveries (No.9). Cheers On the outskirts of Perth, out of the mysterious land of Fremantle, (western) Australia, for just short of a decade and a half, Datura4 has been steadily grinding their way to the international presence and the revere that the band has garnered to this very day.  Having been following the band's progress and rise since slightly after their debut release (Demon Blues, 2019, Alive Records), I will be the first to acknowledge that it's been very evident that Datura4 has put every foot forward with the perpetuation of a freight train, in order to get where they are today.  This is not a lazy band, by far.  Before this year, they have released a total of five studio albums since 2015, all having been put-out by the only label home they've known, Alive Records (Alive Naturalsound) out of the music capital of the world, Los Angeles, California.  The band's modern style mixture of '70s throwback boogie woogie, hard blues rock and psychedelia, falls right inline with the mentality of their record label, whose roster includes some of the hottest names in glam rock, psych, blues, classic punk, and the list goes on. If you have been following our Eclectic Discoveries article series here at Goldmine this past year, you may have been privy to the review that I did in the May/June 2023 edition, with regard to the band's 2022 fifth studio effort, Neanderthal Jam.   The review was over the moon and as praising and accolades-driven as any album review could be (you'll have to read it for yourself if you haven't already). Since then, the band has been on a steady international tour schedule, and has temporarily put aside formulating a sixth studio effort, in order to visit their fandom at various places across the globe.  And while we can imagine that it is definitely in the band's itinerary, to give us a new collection of original songs to drool over, fans of the band will just have to have a little more patience. However, because Datura4 followers are eagerly awaiting a new full-length studio effort, the label and the band, collectively, thought it to be a fantastic idea, and give Datura4 fandom a small collection of never-before-heard versions/out takes and grouping of songs that have never before been available on vinyl record, before now.  The end of 2023 has given us a pseudo-new album by the band, and thus Invisible Hits is proving to be a great pacifier, in order to hold fans over, until we can get a new Datura4 full-length 'original material' album onto our turntables and into our CD players. Photo credit: Jon Tarry As a music collector and fan of physical music media, because of space constraints, many times you will find that a compact disc version of an album may have one, two or more extra available songs than does its vinyl record counterpart.  Often, one might think that this may be a ploy by the band and/or the record company to force you to buy both format releases.  I can assure you that this is not the case.  If you want a single disc vinyl record to sound even halfway decent, let alone fantastic, you don't cram more music than can be mastered properly onto one side of a vinyl record.  Two of the songs on the new Invisible Hits LP are prime examples of that.  Not only is "Drive-by Island" one of my most frequently visited Datura4 songs out of their entire discography, but it was also never featured on the vinyl version of their last album, Neanderthal Jam.  Because of proper mastering rules, it was one of the songs that were chosen to be left off of the vinyl, and available only on the compact disc variant.  Now, however, you can experience this absolutely gorgeous track in the warmth of analog on a vinyl record.  Just as well, "Fish Fry," a song with a great bar-band feel, encompassing a smooth electric blues undertone, with a hard rock personality, is now also available to be heard on vinyl for the very first time ever.   "Walk on the Water," is new to the ears of Datura fans. Never before released as a single, nor available on any of the five previous studio albums, it is a graceful, melodic yet punchy production, with flowing lead vocals and beautifully arranged backgrounds, and topped off with an amazing lead guitar solo that follows a Hammond B3 run that will keep you glued to the song.  Upon hearing it for the first time, I could not pull myself away.  It became stuck under the phono cartridge on my turntable for several repeats before I allowed the album to move forward. "Evil People Pt. 2," a chant-style semi-instrumental that was originally featured ONLY on the compact disc version of the band's third studio effort, Blessed Is The Boogie, can now be chanted along with as it comes out of the analog grooves of this new vinyl record.  With absolutely no disrespect intended to Dom Mariani's incredibly fit lead vocals, the never-before-released instrumental, "Phoenix," has found its way onto this new album, and it is a breath-taking way to experience the pure talent of the band's instrumentation, lathered in big sounding blues rock goodness, and just slightly reminiscent of a non-vocal "Won't Get Fooled Again," by The Who.   One of the coolest variants that you will come across, is an expanded version of "Going Back to Hoonsville," found originally as the lead-in track on 2022's Neanderthal Jam, which is a freedom-ringing hard rocker, as the original version already conveys.  With the Invisible Hits version, you'll immediately come head-on with intricate guitar riffing in the intro of the song—that was never previously there—and which continues through parts of each of the verses and choruses.  Moreover, there is a blazing guitar solo in the bridge of the song that is the heartbeat of this new variant; simply fantastic!   Another 'missing' vinyl piece from the recent past comes by way of the original 2020 version of "Rule My World," first found only on the compact disc version of the band's West Coast Highway Cosmic album, as the only track not included on its vinyl counterpart.  Such a hard, blues laced, boogie woogie rocker it is—one of their best pure bar-band styled bangers, which sounds crisp and precise on the CD format.  However, now, you can listen to the song via an analog medium, giving it slightly more of a natural and unpolished sonic characteristic, the way I believe this song should always be heard. Lastly, just the same as was their 2019 semi-instrumental "Evil People Pt. 2,"(as mentioned above) so it is with "The City of Lights," as both were only ever included digitally on the CD version of their third studio effort.  This melody-driven, beauty of lyrical story-telling, which is supported by an absolute blossomed production, with layers of fantastic instrumentation, can now be had to enjoy, coming from within the confines of the analog grooves of a vinyl record.  While the analog vinyl format, and the digital compact disc format both have their designated purposes, and as both appease in the same way for some, or hold a totally separate preference with others, it is just fantastic that now all Datura4 material can be experienced either way, and we have the band and the label to thank for that.

Wonzo the great says that’s a wrap. Our final show at Villa Abrizzi Marini in an old converted Armenian church. 16 Rockin’ shows in Spain and Italy over 19 days, phew!!! Thank you to all our fans old and new, Luca and Julia for driving the van and getting us to the show on time. Lorena and Gerardo for booking everything and making our tour fun and a successful one. See you next time. Dom, Waz, Stu and Joe #australianrock @leicashow_presents@folc_records#boogierock #bluesrock #classicrock #hardrock #stonerock #heavybluesrock#psychblues #psychrock