Album review: DEWOLFF – Fuego!
Website [Release date 05.12.25]
What do Redbone, Leon Russell, Lowell George, Bad Company, Link Wray, Henri Garella, Cray Fox and Dr. John have in common ?
They all crafted masterpieces which have inspired the ridiculously fertile imaginations of Dutch blues/soul/psychedelic rockers, DeWolff, to re-think, re-imagine and lovingly-refurbish these swampy nuggets on their latest release, “Fuego!”
Fresh from the Tennessee River-infused success of their adventurous “Muscle Shoals” album, DeWolff prove once again that the sky is just too damn low to be any kind of limit at all. Paying faithful tribute to their heroes, both obvious and obscure, our fearless, flying Dutchmen have dug deep into the archives of their influences and blown the cobwebs off half a dozen absolute beauties.
Opening with Native Indian rockers, Redbone’s “Judgement Day”, this song could easily have been an original on the band’s Wolffpack album. It has that signature tight interplay of Piso’s keys and van de Poel’s riffage and an uncanny amount of DeWolff DNA on this cut from 1973.
And therein lies the magic of this band. DeWolff are eerily reincarnated from that golden period of ‘60s/’70s sounds and songwriting. Had Leon Russell fathered bastard sons, they would have grown up “Dutch and in touch” with the very roots of soulful southern rock. Russell’s “Roll Away The Stone” is restored to its former glory. Scary good.
At that baptism, Lowell George would surely have been a godparent and his epic “The Fan” from 1974 (you see the pattern here) is recreated here in collaboration with the Professor himself, Joe Bonamassa. Guitar eroticism at its very best as Piso takes over on the ivories, making your ears cry tears of auditory joy. A real six-string fling, bouncing off all 88 keys on the board and driven hard by tub-thumper and beat brother, Luka van de Poel.
“Fire and Water” needs no real introduction as to its origins and sits deservedly amongst this collection. Then just when you think you have the cut of DeWolff’s jib, you’re hit with “Faster and Faster” – two minutes of manic, French progressive keyboards mayhem with Robin Piso fingering his Hammond to a gut-busting orgasm on this rare and esoteric cut from 1969.
Finally, the ten-minute opus, “Fire and Brimstone/Hawg Frog/I Walk On Gilded Splinters” closes out the album with typical swagger and panache, summing up all we’ve come to love about this band. Threatening, voodoo-tinged, sludgy and hypnotic, only DeWolff could put these three songs together and have them make sense. Somewhere up in heaven, Link Wray, Buzz Clifford and the Nighttripper himself are raising a glass of moonshine and toasting Fuego!
In January, DeWolff will perform two consecutive, sold out shows at Amsterdam’s famous Paradiso venue – the first night featuring their output from 2008-2016 and on the second night, their music from 2017-2025. Who the fuck does that in their early 30s ?
F**king DeWolff, that’s who. *****
Review by Mark “Mad Dog” Shaw
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