By Jake Murray
Allow me to introduce you to Dead Wolf Club, London's newest contributors to the long and tattered history of punk variation. While the group already have a good chunk of material out there, you might not have picked up on them yet and shame on you for not making the effort. Dead Wolf Club inhabit that vague corner of musical definition often labelled as "post-punk" but that's a half-assed genre so we'll drop that there. The group's most recent release, the 4-track Healer EP is their debut on Big Tea Records and has been spun on air by Steve Lamacq - not a bad thing!
Opening with the jarringly abrupt 'Flood' it's clear the group don't fuck around. Stammering, bending guitars twitch in the background with ooooh aaaah vocals while we're told about things that have or haven't been told. This opening number is reminiscent of the brief-but-excellent "supergroup", The Lost Trees (Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner, the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea and the LA artist Aska Matsumiya ASKA) with a similar drive and determination, whilst retaining melody and for the most part a certain level of clarity in lyrics. A great opener, without a doubt.
'Melt' is redolent of the early-day Bloc Party sounds, and other early 2000's indie guitar Topman boy-bands. Luckily however Dead Wolf Club have skirted above the criteria for entry to the Topman club and retain an element of surprise in their music. Noisy guitar and delay-drenched vocals blur into one even noisier lead and then without hesitation cut the song dead. Whether starting or finishing their songs, this band doesn't spend time on formalities and with no songs passing the 3 minute song (sorry, 'Flood,' 15 seconds doesn't count) this really is a no-nonsense EP.
'Metropolis' boasts thrashy, well-driven drums and your quintessential post-rock tremolo guitar (with shit-loads of effects) and beacons the deep-cut moment in this extremely short record; it's almost a shame that the song is 2mins 55sec as it could happily expand further into something more well-developed.
Healer EP closes with the potential teen anthem '17', a poppy tune that could easily have been plagiarised from Pains of Being Pure at Heart or Mew, but carries too much muscle and thrash to be either. As before, the song wastes no time and makes no courtesy to lure you in or lead you out, and why should it? That's not what Dead Wolf Club is about! It's clear from the very brief amount of time this 4-track EP covers that 1) this band must be truly awesome live, and 2) if they make a full-length album it'll be made up of about a hundred songs.
