The 50-fingered beast that is THE SCARAMANGA SIX launches its single tonight. "We Rode the Storm" (WRATHCD22) is an astonishing achievement. Reared like a monster in a secret shed away from the sleaze of corporate music, this purchasing opportunity is now officially snarling, licensed and fully formed in shops across the nation. (killer video and four tracks included). In the background their third (Tim Smith produced) album is tearing away from the leash of its 2005 New Year release date. So tonight's audience are not here to check the credentials of a new band, pulling chins at "whether the Six are as good as people say". THE SCARAMANGA SIX demand to be heard on their own terms and no one here in Leeds is arguing.
Blistering, mesmerising, manic, threatening, pummelling. Oh yes, all of those words. THE SCARAMANGA SIX open their show with the deranged chords and screaming of "Poison Pen". This is the message for the rest of the set … juddering, bass-hungry, squalling torrents of angry malevolence and the thrill of escape. Eccentric? Oddball? Not everybody's cup of tea?" Bugger me, do beauty queens pick their teeth? Of course it’s crazy. It’s also played and sung with effortlessly venomous skill.
Audience haranguing duties are shared between Paul and Steve Morricone, sociopathic accountants at The Bank of Shitty Deals. The mysterious Julia Arnez takes the riffs with the smooth, sparkling on outlandish guitar. Ant "the Pontecarlo Kid" Sargeant is Mat Lucas with his funny bone shoved up your arse drumming for internal damage. Star-struck young recruit Chris Catalyst is a semi-housetrained crazy punk making the keyboard and some extra drums do bad things for no known charity.
"Soul Destroyer" is wonderful, operatic and tragic. "A Song for You" is devious and scarifying. "Unclean" goes further out there than they've been before. I love it. The crowd is yelping, and is getting a good telling off for its pains: "This is a song for YOU ,and it's about KILLLING. Yes KILLING. And it’s for YOU." "Go and buy our fucking record". Right. Ok. I already bought it, but … yeh. How good, too, is the violence of "Smite My Face"?
It has gone past the point where a reviewer needs to explain or justify THE SCARAMANGA SIX. It is up to you dear reader. They are CEOs in pop's tinny world of junior section mangers. THE CARDIACS provide the obligatory reference-point. And by no coincidence at all, The Scaramangas were the support act on THE CARDIACS recent London Astoria gig. Maybe THE CARDIACS were the mother ship. But the Six have been cruising off on their own monomaniac journey for some time now.
And, with a doubloon nailed to the mast, they don't even play the single, supposedly the object of tonight's show. They do leave the promoter, skewered on a harpoon, bleeding gently in the band room.
|
A successful act in their own right in South Africa, three-piece SUNWAY are one of five other tantalising dishes at tonight's Tea Time Shuffle (it’s a Leeds thing … don’t ask). SUNWAY moved to Northern Ireland recently and are bringing their big sound and small selves to the great unwashed of England. From beat one to the final chord SUNWAY are are a relentless* stream of guitar joy. The solo guitar attack has been Jack White territory for a while now, but where White makes out with more bravado than the result deserves, SUNWAY do a more Pete Townshend thing, ringing torrents of lines and chords out of great ideas done fluently. And really good songs too. "No surprises" stood out on a first listening, but the general maturity and confidence of their act makes it clear that the recorded work will be well worth following up. The frontman holds the show, but bass and drums are great value too. There's a pop side to what they're doing – mostly through the quality of the song writing. But my delight is in the guitar playing, which rounds their set off with some bouncing blues that could be Lowell George.
NERVOUS SHAKEDOWN are a much more straightforward proposition. Guitar, bass and drums are set up with a fine pair of voices (Mark Stainton, guitars; Dan Wilson, bass) and a rock steady drummer (Jason Pick). There's a Texas feel to their thing too. Big hearted, honest, unprententious music with blues, boogie shuffle and rock mixed easily together. They've a good ear for a riff and they sound at ease with what they play. It’s modest in a good way. The set flags a bit towards the end as they get into some slower stuff – but they're not the sort of people who calculate the BPMs and dynamic shape of the whole package. They're naturals, playing what feels right. Rock without the cock.
Tonight, THE BUTTEFLY, RENT and THE TOUCH also played (see separate review)
*the word "relentless" was suggested by Chris Catalyst (AKA Robochrist). It is a good word.
|
