Ack! Ack! Ack! Records is a new label based in Middlesborough UK offering up a 12" adding to their growing roster and it's a doozy. Teaming up on this 12" is The Rebel and Year of Birds who flirt with electronics, kraut, lo-fi and punk in experimental home-recordings.
ASide 'Pre-Pub' from The Rebel features five songs about eating, fucking and death played out mainly with synthesizers, guitars and drums. Opener 'Pubgrub' sets the tone with angular-cyber-pop allowing Ben Wallers and Sophie Politowicz to robotize the world around them. Digitizing commonplace subjects explored with a sense of black humour sums up a little bit of what I take away from The Rebel's work. Shown further on 'It's a 10'; "I'll fuck anything that isn't nailed down", sings Wallers alongside minimal beats and dissonant melody. Another highlight on this side is 'Hard Times of Old England' that has the spirit of one of those football sing-a-long anthems, seeing The Rebel doing what they do best, morphing everyday life into bursts of off kilter electronic rock told from a tragicomic perspective.
Flipping over are Year of Birds a band grounded in Middlesborough featuring; Paul Coates, guitar, Michael Gillham, drums, Oli Heffernan, guitar & vocals and Danielle Velterelle, bass. Together the four piece deliver ramshackle garage punk in the Black Time and The Intelligence vein. Eleven short, gritty and dense sounding numbers flesh out this side of the record. 'Jabs At The Brow' kicks things off with urgent guitars, pummeling rhythms and unmannered vocals, qualities that are consistent throughout and become even more frenzied - like on head-spinning track 'To The Left'. If I didn't know any better I would say this band were from the states, so I was more than excited to find out they're on home turf. From what I can tell these guys have only been around for a year with a handful of releases to date NOT including an album yet, for me, one to watch...
Great, great piece from both bands and stellar way to kick off a label - erm, more please!
Year of Birds Bandcamp
Ack! Ack! Ack! Records Facebook Bandcamp
No comments:
Post a Comment