MUSIC: The Devil His Due by Chris Randall

The Devil His Due

Chris Randall

Chris Randall

The Devil His Due

Positron Records, 2007

Chris Randall made a name for himself in the Chicago music scene as the leader of Sister Machine Gun, a group that took industrial abrasion and hard rock and married them far better than nearly everyone else in the game. Then, a couple of years ago, he packed up and moved to Oregon and took a 180 toward more organic music. The Devil His Due is the result.

Make no mistake, the breathy gravelly voice is unchanged, but it finds itself in more complimentary territory. His voice makes hair bristle on "Sin Eater", while on his cover of "St. James Infirmary Blues" his weary croon sells the song with ease. The guitar work on this album, courtesy of Chris and former SMG conspirator Miguel Turanzas, is blistering and possibly some of the best blues work the genre has seen in some time. It’s also worth noting that the drums sound fantastic on Devil – if you close your eyes to listen it almost seems you’re in the room with the songs as they play out. Chris’s art-noir approach to roots music and subsequent execution puts him in the same neighborhood as Nick Cave and Matt Johnson’s The The in its Dusk-era.

As has always been the case with Chris’s music, it’s best to let the songs speak for themselves. It's guaranteed that one listen to The Devil His Due will reinforce this, as words can’t really do it justice. Without a doubt, this is the best thing he’s ever done.

--Jack Alberson