Panic Shack return with storming new single ‘I Don’t Really Like It’, the rising quintet’s third of 2020 coming hot on the heels of both February’s debut ‘Who’s Got My Lighter?’ and this summer’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it follow-up ‘Jiu Jits-You‘. It’s out now digitally via Clwb Creative Records and was once again recorded by Tom Rees of Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard at Rat Trap Studios.
Starting out as a more studied version of Panic Shack all insidious simmering post-punk basslines and interlocking group vocals that nod to The Slits and Young Marble Giants – ‘I Don’t Really Like It’ gathers into a strident two fingered rocket to mansplainers.
Speaking of the track, the band offer:
“We wrote ‘I Don’t Really Like It’ as a song that could be about anyone and everyone. This single is a bit of a change in direction for us. It’s literally 4 lines but it makes an impact. Most may assume it’s directed at men from a woman’s perspective (I mean a LOT of our songs are) but who it’s actually about is a secret. Basically this song is for anyone who has felt spoken down to, patronised or ‘mansplained’ to… You get the picture. It was recorded at Rat Trap Studios with Tom the week before lockdown… unbeknown to us that would be the only time we get to perform the song for the foreseeable.”
‘I Don’t Really Like It’ comes accompanied by a suitably creepy video following an unsettling protagonist, known solely as “The Gimp”, while the band perform the track through an array of TV screens. The clip was directed, produced and conceived by Jaydon Martin and Cornelia Van Rijswijk, with creative direction from Dah Dit Dit. Of the clip, Panic Shack say:
“We shot our scenes from our respective homes in Cardiff during lockdown. What you see outside of the television screen in the vid was all filmed in Brisbane, Australia by fellow friends and creatives Jaydon Martin and Cornelia Van Rijswijk. We’ve yet to meet our googly eyed stalker, but we reckon he did a great job!”
https://youtu.be/_-9P_V38vIg
Comprised of Sarah Harvey (vocals), Meg Fretwell (guitar/backing vocals), Romi Lawrence (guitar/backing vocals), Em Smith (bass) and David Bassey (drums), the band were officially formed in late 2018 as an affront to how music can feel like a ‘members-only club’ at the best of times, a phallocracy at the worst.
Photo credit: Sian Adler/Trigger Happy Creative (click image for hi-res)
