There’s a certain anti-folk ska punk sound that I find somewhat synonymous with Brighton, and from the gurgling and croaky vocals and swaggering groove of opening track Goldie Locks there’s a familiar set of fingerprints that seem to have pawed over the quirky, squelchy sounds of The Sly Tones. Fortunately there’s plenty of daffy invention to be plundered from this five track, and whilst that opener is a bit of a cliche, the following track This Female For Retail has bonkers blood pumping through its veins, some parts Gomez then occasionally a tad Marilyn Manson, it’s let down by a tongue-in-cheek mantra of ‘Let’s all talk about Amy Winehouse.’ But for the most part its like listening to Lee Scratch Perry remix the entire career of The Coral into one track.
With an intro that sounds like a homage (or lawsuit waiting to happen) to The Stooges‘s I Wanna Be Your Dog, the rich annuniciation of lead singer Ashley Edwards are similar in arch style to the anti-folk likes of If Robin Dies or the supper club jazz of Smokehand, meanwhile its jaunty chorus has a strange flavour of Kula Shaker‘s homage-soaked retro-rock with some great guest flute from Dave Evans.
However like a lot of bands of this ilk their doff-of-the-cap to the more experimental sound of 60s/70s psych-rock walks a precarious tight-rope between carefully positioned nostalgia and self-effacing parody, sometimes The Sly Tones are a bit too wobbly and wind up a bit too close to a Liam Lynch-esque ‘Fake Song’.
Chris Phillips’ inventive keys enliven the squelchy groove of Sorry (Shaking You Off), the wealth of percussion production creating a suitably ramshackle atmosphere around the rather rote verses. Meanwhile closing track Like A Drug has a swinging joy to its instrumental asides, especially one briefly punctuated by Rolf Harris-like gasps and splutters. ‘We stumbled across the path, but there is no path,’ sings Edwards at one point, which kind of works as a fitting analogy for this EP as a whole, tracks occasionally find themselves hitting a stride, layers of great instrumental flourishes here and there, but often the tunes are directionless and lacking a strong enough core be it lyrical or melodic to really grab the listener. A fair bit of promise, but unfortunately not realised on this record at least.
[Rating:2]
