(((O))) : Human Leather – Here Comes The Mind, There Goes The Body

OK pop kids, this one has been a long time coming so I’m sure we can all cope with my review rolling in late looking pale and worse for wear. Fans of the band and/or reliably great label Wrong Speed Records will probably have been spinning their randomly coloured, recycled vinyl, copies of Here Comes The Mind, There Goes The Body for a couple of weeks already but it officially landed in quality retail outlets on Friday. For the curious among you who just wandered in to see what all the commotion was Human Leather are a powerfully loud noise punk duo and this, finally, is the debut full length evidence of their enjoyably ferocious post hardcore racket.   

Tom Close plays drums with an energetic urgency that keeps the songs on their toes tipping forward from one explosive crescendo to the next, jumping back and forth from one beat to another, never settling into genre patterns. Amée Chanter’s vocals summon her inner goblin to release harsh barks and guttural growls, while her bass kicks out a loud distorted roar offset by a nimble musicality that reminds me of NoMeansNo’s Rob Wright. There’s a lot of anarcho punk in their thing as well, but with plenty more sludge over all of it. It’s raging, but in a fun way. You’re gonna love it.

Their lyrical concerns are not especially easy to make out although they do a good line in long and intriguing song titles to help you. ‘Ain’t No Such Thing As Civilised. It’s Man So In Love With Greed, He Has Forgotten Himself And Found Only Appetites’ is a beauty that, by itself, suggests something grand and post-rock. The song coats down wasteful consumerism, in blunter style, the rhythmic cadence of the music not leaving space for longer lines. Another consumer takedown ‘QVC Hands’ seems mostly to be about hand models on the shopping channel because although their concerns are righteous, they aren’t humourless about it.        

There’s a lot of eco-worry going on as well, notably in ‘Spare Me The Pleasant Trees’,  ‘Lore Of The Land’ and ‘They Enclosed The Common Land and Built A Fucking Lawn’, the lyrics in both form and content channelling that anarcho-hippie-punk thing. The rage in the music isn’t coming from a burning black pit of hate, it’s the ambient horror of helplessness as the world burns around you and no-one seems to care, “This Is Fine”. The anger isn’t coming at you, it’s alongside you, a chance to release that background fury that makes it surprisingly fun for something so loud and shouty.

If for some reason you weren’t having any fun the closing ‘Outro’ should put a smile on your face. A ridiculous cut ‘n’ paste remix that harks back to the time of CD singles and rock bands engaging in dubious dancefloor reworks it somehow succeeds, perhaps by compressing the manic energy and good humour of the band into some kind of sleepily stoned ball of breakcore silliness. Sure to be dancefloor dynamite.