By: Stuart Benjamin
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Syd Howells and company have been actively agitating in South Wales for donkeys years in one guise or another – The Disasters, Thee Babelfish, Doris Karloff, as well as collaborations with lo-fi sonic terrorists Steveless (whose album, Mistakes in all the right places is a joyous cacophony from start to finish by the way, and one which is rightly deserving of a place in your record collection, but – like Ronnie Corbett – I digress…). Indeed the band have been running an under-the-radar cottage industry for some time, despite one of their number being resident in Spain.
Some of These Objects Are Cursed is the second album by the group, totally self-financed, managed, and promoted by the band themselves, all of whom are well steeped in the cut ‘n’ paste DIY lo-fi punk work ethics of doing it yourself – much like the early Manic Street Preachers. And, like Blackwood’s finest, the twelve songs here – mining a rich vein of politics and pop-culture – range from puckish, punky, new-wave, to classic rock, and are very wordy too – the band seemingly having any number of axes to grind.
Occasionally this does get in the way of the music, but with hearts worn firmly on sleeves we’re willing to forgive it. I daresay those who the songs are aimed at deserve it. But for what it’s worth all the tracks try and hook you at the very earliest opportunity, and one of the main drives in putting the album together was that each song should be able to work as a stand alone singles.
Kiley, Stockdale and Howells are a satisfyingly tight and together unit as a band, but think of them as a clinical strike, rather than a sustained war of attrition. It’s also a very democratic affair with the combination of guitars and drums allowed equal time to shine alongside a clear vocal mix that, at times, positively drips with sarcasm. For my money I’d have loved to see a more experimental edge on display, and it’s clear they have a great love of weird and experimental music; but it has to be admitted that the band are at their best in the snappier punk numbers – ‘Death Of A Hipster’ is a great slice of classic punk, teetering on the edge of falling apart at any minute, as is the album opener ‘Apple Corer’. ‘The Man to Who Death Did Not Apply’ and ‘Leave the Dead Eyed Bastard to the Birds’ are really great sleazy rock ‘n’rollers. Probably my favourite is twisted love song (or anti-love song) ‘Some Scum’, which is two parts Nick Cave to three parts Wire – which is no bad thing at all.
So, a valiant effort (in spite of the geography) to keep the voice of rock ‘n’ roll dissent alive and well – and there are too few bands doing that these days.
