EP REVIEW: Kobadelta – Remain Distracted
Courtesy of Dave Franklin
★★★★☆
If ‘They Can’t Hurt Me’ isn’t the sound of a band possessed by the wandering spirit of Jim Morrison, I don’t know what is. Not that there is anything wrong with that. At least they are honest enough to wear that musical heart, dashed and bleeding on their collective sleeves.. Likewise, the track broods, threatens, glowers and conjures images of a dark urban underworld of serial killers and kerb crawling intended victims, and of death in the shadows that drag you to the soundtrack of your worst nightmare. And if ‘They Can’t Hurt Me’ displays the band exploring dynamic changes, ‘Repetition’ just goes straight for the jugular: primitive animal urges are poured into the very soul of the music with its psychedelic washes of guitar spiral skyward, relentless beats and driving bass grooves that break down into a wonderfully indulgent wig-out before remembering the plot and sprinting to the finish.
There is as much atmosphere and space as there is music; fear held together by distant bass rumbles and fragile razor wire riffs before exploding in wildly overdriven guitars and the ricochet of skittering drum patterns that swirl in the vortex between those two extremes. ‘Siam’ matches sleazy lyrics to a more conventional song structure and swan song while ‘The Heretic’ manages to revisit all of their musical tricks and traits into the perfect précis of everything that has gone before.
Remain Distracted draws a geographic line from the creative anarchy of a Ladbroke Grove sixties twilight to Altamont as the hippy dream descends into madness, and a chronological line that links The Doors to Kyuss crossed by one that joins The Banshees to Temples. Although many bands channel retro sounds as a cynical marketing tool, the Newcastle based ban have dived deep into the cold waters of a gothic-psychedelic darkness and returned to the surface clutching a black and shimmering musical pearl.
Released Friday 26th September.
Tracklist:
1. Siam
2. Repetition
3. They Can’t Hurt Me
4. The Heretic
RELATED:
ALBUM REVIEW: The Wytches: Annabel Dream Reader
EP REVIEW: Qúetzal Snåkes – Lovely Sort of Death
Slim Customers: London´s undiscovered garage
The Chewers: Off-kilter, deadpan avant-rock
