Deraps: Deraps

After culminating a large following on YouTube by performing energetic and skilful covers of classic Van Halen tunes, Jacob Deraps and his band have grouped together to create a wholly original record that’ll aim to send you back to the 70’s. Their YouTube channel successfully demonstrates their overwhelmingly positive reception at gigs as well as viewers’ impressed responses to Jacob’s covers. The band originally started as ‘Van Halen Unchained’ for their aforementioned gigs, so it seems as though they’re ready to make their artistic debut. The big question is, does it meet the quality of the material they’ve been covering? The short answer being, yes.

Quite literally in seconds you are told what sort of ride you’re in during the lighting quick intro ‘Invasion’, purely acting as Halen-esc picking which slides right into the single ‘Sex, Drugs & Rock N Roll’. Its immediately clear why this was the single, what an original and ecstatic throwback to the past. The drums carry bass, the cymbals carry rhythm, the guitar keeps you hooked, the bass throbs and the vocals are sublime. Jacob presents himself as having an extremely unique and charisma filled voice, hitting the highs perfectly along with his bandmates; resulting in an extremely bombastic and fun chorus. You’ll also notice, much like the following tracks, there’s hardly any repeating sections throughout the album. Moments are dedicated to purely bass riffs and others for rapid drumming, as well as Jacob deviating from any building patterns in sound through his vocals. ‘My Side of Town’ only continues this strong start, carrying an equal amount of character and charm whilst also being completely different as it uses humorous conversations between ‘city-dwelling’ characters in addition to a Crocodile Dundee reference? Why not! As much as I’d love to cover all of the other 7 original tracks, I’ll have to just detail my favourites. ‘Veins of My Heart’ could easily have been a stone-cold classic if it had been released 40 years ago. The riffs here are at their grittiest and the choruses at their most harmonious, I also particularly love this track for its smooth and spacey interlude during the halfway point as it lets Jacob show off his lengthiest solo of the album whilst the drums keep a dense atmosphere around it (and then shooting back into the chorus flawlessly). ‘Make Ya Groove’ is my second favourite, maybe (the choices are too plentiful here), as Jacob’s vocals are even more characterful and playful than before which only makes me even more sure he’s a natural-born frontman. The catchiness and desire to dance is turned up to eleven with the background clapping and up-tempo tambourine, this one will definitely get the crowd’s attention. On top of all this, a faithful and explosive cover of the classic Sweet track ‘Ballroom Blitz’ is thrown on at the end just for fun, and what fun it is.

If you want to relive the sensation you had from listening to those 70’s classics you constantly have on rotation for the first time, look no further, because this record delivers, hard.

Track Listing:
1. Invasion
2. Sex, Drugs & Rock N’ Roll
3. My Side of Town
4. Live Fast, Die Slow
5. Veins of My Heart
6. Élizabeth
7. Make Ya Groove
8. Wild to The Woman
9. On My Mind
10. F**k Off
11. Ballroom Blitz (Cover)

Added: April 25th 2022
Reviewer: Johnny Ponsford
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 1200
Language: english

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