As Wiley mockingly asked in his hilarious, pigeonholer-mocking song of the same name.... 'Wot U Call It?!'
Well, that's not an easy one. A quick listen to 'Burnt Ends' – and at one minute, ten seconds, a quick listen truly is the only way to hear this song –reveals the following... A distorted bass intro that could be Lemmy in a particularly grumpy mood. A lurching groove that's so implausibly heavy it makes a good case for being included in the periodic table of elements. A rising wall of feedback fed through an array of mysterious pedals, and splintered guitar notes that sound like glass shattering. It's way too weird to be metal, too clever to be punk and it would have the average wimpy indie kid involuntarily evacuating their bowels in fear.
And above this amorphous explosion of sound, arrives the voice of Caroline Gilchirst, as pure and heavenly as her accompaniment is grimy and hellish. Just to add to the lovely confusion, you understand. 'Burnt Ends' is a teaser for this South London four piece's self-titled debut album, and in many ways it raises more questions than it answers, not least 'when can we have some more?!' Whatever it contains, we can only really be certain that it will be like nothing we've ever heard before.
On closer inspection, their promotional bumph reveals that the band themselves have created a name for it – avant hard. It makes total sense, even if you're unlikely to find a section devoted to it in Rough Trade. So take up their challenge and immerse yourself in the sonic equivalent of a star collapsing on itself or the atom being very violently split Go on – come and have a go if you think you're avant hard enough.
'Burnt Ends' is out on Brixton Hillbilly on June 22.
Text by John Robbins May 2018
No comments:
Post a Comment