In the interests of fairness to this band I am going to imitate their style and write this review in as quick a way as possible. By doing this I hope to maybe pick up on some of the energy that they expound and release it back to you readers. For this is not your usual album, one where the songs take a steady four minutes to deliver their wisdom to our “numb” skulls, this is one which attacks you at breathtaking speed in a flurry of guitars and Casio style keyboards.
So who are Glow Kit? They hail from Denmark and consist of various members of other bands who may or may not be popular in the land that gave the world such musical luminaries as Whigfield, Alphabeat and Aqua. Curiously for a country renowned for its plastic pop, here is a band who seem like they have imbibed a year’s supply of speed and been let loose on their guitars.
There’s no point in trying to dissect the songs. They are what they are. Each song lasts an average of one and a half minutes and re-invigorates a garage rock scene long thought dead. Anyone who has listened to the wonderful Nuggets compilation will find much to love here. Urgent guitars with encapsulated psychedelic keyboards bring back those long forgotten days when nothing mattered but having a good time. Others have tried, some have become megastars, but none have understood the true idea of a garage band. Glow Kit may just have tapped into the nerve centre of a scene waiting to be reborn.
Amongst the bubblegum harmonies and angular guitar riffs is a yearning for 1970’s punk. I’m not talking that old Sex Pistols tat here; this is the punk that got waylaid along the way. Street punk is a name I heard once and this sort of describes it. The sort of punk which ignored the bile and favoured the joyful sound of picking up a guitar for the first time and thrashing out a few songs about going to the pub. It is the sound of fun…and there may well be a lesson to learn here.
So, Glow Kit have it all. Well, maybe not quite all, they are never going to set the world on fire, they will never be huge megastars…but then, that’s not the point. This is an exercise in the joy of music and by god you will have a good time even if the album does only last about twenty minutes! Drop your old weatherworn heroes and find your inner child again.
Released May 28 2012 through Alcopop
Posted by Martyn Coppack
