Author: Crossfire

Hipsters, prepare to squirm! The year, 1982, and, most likely after reading about them in Sounds, I picked up Flipper‘s “Love Canal/Ha Ha Ha” 7″ from Subway Records in Brighton. I dug the band name, and the cover looked sick. I wanted in!

But then I got home, and after a couple of spins I was just not connecting at all with the twisted discordant grind. I took the 7″ around to my friend Martin to see what he thought. His eclectic musical taste was gaining at pace, as was his appetite for opiates. Of course he locked right in to Flipper’s groove. I told him to keep the 7″, and returned to more accessible sounds.

Domino Records have reissued a bunch of Flipper’s early releases, with “Generic“, their ’82 debut LP being the obvious starting point, and easily their most crucial release. And, funnily enough, Krist Novoselic, in his chipper liner notes, recalls a similar non-plussed experience when he first heard Flipper, on a beat up tape lent by his buddy Buzz Osbourne … but closes with the advice that “if it does not grab you straight away, give it a few spins and it could very well creep up on you and knock you off your feet”. It certainly worked for me. As time past by I grew to appreciate what Flipper was about, rocking out to their explosive and challenging psychotic jams that had their sights set firmly on blowing our tiny minds and beating us in to submission, eventually.

Flipper Rules… Ok? Ok!!

Pete Craven.

I think of Polar Bear Club as a hardcore band yet this record really isn’t that heavy at all. It feels like a Small Brown Bike record but with far superior production and a slight tinge of The Get Up kids and a little bit of folky influence in there. The album’s dramatically strong impetus comes mainly from the fact that, although there are fairly fast and upbeat tracks, a lot of the songs are actually quite slow.

This breaks up our usual perception of hardcore as being fast-paced and makes Polar Bear Club an altogether more interesting prospect than your average band in their genre. ‘Boxes‘ is the perfect example of how this band take a simple formula, add some slightly-out-of-the-ordinary riffs around the main melody without over-complicating everything and come up trumps with a classic-sounding song.

With album number two, Polar Bear Club have truly perfected the art of balancing simplicity and originality, crafting a collection of accomplished tracks full of hooks, interesting nuances, and that rough yet melodic heart-wrenching vocal their small but growing fanbase has come to know and love. Variation is key here and where a lot of bands’ songs often end up blending into one, Polar Bear Club clearly define every offering with a specific theme and sound that doesn’t stray from their aesthetic but adds something new to their spectrum of sounds. ‘Drifting Thing‘ in particular shows a softer side to the band and a wildly different side to their instruments from that which they normally use with lilting vocals and palm-muted guitars.

Above all, ‘Chasing Hamburg‘ is an album that is undoubtedly heartfelt, one that you can identify with and one that is begging for a singalong or 20.

Winegums.

When Every Time I Die dropped The Big Dirty in 2007, their augmented Southern Rock stylings ensured not a pair of hips was left in the house that wasn’t swinging this way and that to their riffs. So when they released the brilliantly titled The Marvelous Slut with its angled tones and screamed vocals, the fuse had been lit to see just what sonic explosion would be held within their new album’s cover.

New Junk Asthetic is an album that will unite all Every Time I Die fans, that much is clear. Whilst the swagger from the previous album is still there, in the grooving stylings of Wanderlust [which you can hear by clicking the player above] which will make even the squarest of nerds bounce to the chugging guitars, they have reverted to their older material for this marriage.

Who Invited The Russian Soldier and White Smoke are the perfect examples of that, at times stripped down, at times a full on assault showcasing the versatility of Keith Buckley and co. as they pound their way through what must be the best rock album of the year. The album seems slightly short but by the time you reach the end, you only want to play the entire thing again so it’s no bad thing.

All in all, New Junk Asthetic is that record that makes you want to smash up your surroundings and watch it burn, don’t continue living without it!

Abjekt.