I bought this to get my hands on ‘Salamander’ by Warmduscher, so everything else was going to be a consolation prize, or so I thought. I mainly review Liverpool bands, but Trashmouth have showcased some of London’s finest. I knew I was likely to enjoy the Fat Whites input, but the tracks from Taman Shud, Pit Ponies, David Cronenberg’s Wife and Bat Bike sent me scurrying to the likes of Soundcloud to check out their other material. Taman Shud’s crescendo of harsh psychedelia was darkly enthralling, whilst Pit Ponies Cockney-boy lyrics, especially on ‘Furies’ blew me away. ‘Drag and Drop’ by Bat Bike has to rank evenly with ‘Furies'. They are my new favourite ballads, playing on loop in my brain long after I have actually listened to them, both tracks having a haunting beauty I find hard to dispel. David Cronenberg’s Wife have great strength and quality. ‘Free State Congo’ is punchy and brutal, whilst ‘All of Me’ is slightly softer, but still maintains the edge of darkness in parts of the vocal delivery.
Even the bands I probably wouldn’t move so quickly to follow up had a lot of merit. The Decius track, ‘Come to Me Villa’ features subtle, sensual vocals over a pared-down back beat. The crazy, punk sound of No Cars was good and raw and Lewis Idle is a perfect rock and roll prince. Meat Raffle, one of the more experimental groups on the album, started strongly with ‘Oppenheimer’, the brass section building an air of unease dispelled in a rush by the frantic, repetitive chorus. Follow Dog continued the contemporary weirdness of it all, and was curiously pleasing to the ear. Za Za Sapien’s intoned spoken word piece ‘Foreign Muck’ with its faux-traditional delivery and clever poetry might make uncomfortable listening for some, but I thought it made a striking and thought-provoking statement about the way we live today in the UK.
So, why did I buy this? Oh, yeah, Warmduscher. Of the three tracks, I thought ‘Lady Eggs’ was the weakest, but even that had a sleazy, fairground appeal. ‘Uncle Sleepover’ slides into your brain making itself at home, the clever lyrics and stripped-down guitars working together perfectly. I’ve been listening to ‘The Salamander’ since the Fat Whites conveniently dropped the saucy, unsettling little video onto my Facebook page. Shambolic and loud, the track holds just enough menace to keep it interesting.
The Fat Whites tracks included on the album are probably never going to top ‘Bomb Disneyland’ or any of the other live staples we have come to know and love. When I first heard them, I was a little disappointed. Then the thing happened, the one that often occurs when I listen to the Fat Whites. I found myself humming ‘Beige’, then singing it to myself, then… well you get the picture. The music grows on me, what can I say? The minimal disco of ‘Without Consent’ offers a valid and intriguing spin on the original, whilst ‘These Hands’ is a bit more typical of the type of tracks we expect from the band, catchy in a grubby, debauched kind of way. I once saw the Fat Whites described as ‘Brilliantly Grotty’. Hats off to the person who wrote that, I couldn’t have put it better myself. There’s nothing grotty about ‘Thinking of Moving to Hastings’, though. It’s just the other bit. It’s just brilliant.
RIFFED'S Rating 9/10
Stream 'Thinking About Moving To Hastings' via Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/trashmouth-records-thinking
Posted by Roxy Gillespie.
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