Primetime: EP REVIEW
Courtesy of Nikhil Kanukuntla
★★★½
If, at any time, you’ve shared my discontent over the fact that ‘Shamble Punk’ is still a term not widely used in the patois of music writing (bar the C86 ‘shambling bands’ as John Peel so affectionately called them), take comfort in the fact that Shamble Punk still exists.
End to end it is a multilateral, hedonistic riot of a 7″. The fact that the instrumentation is often drunkenly rendered is a moot point. The effortless cool of the all-female four piece is incessant and immediately made present, much like the walloping drumming; engineered particularly well so as to dance across both speakers in gleeful fashion. It’s the drumming that greets you first; irregularly but reasonably enchanting while the serpentine bass chokes down the squabble of gargling power chords, a signature of punk rock. The twin lead vocal arrangement intensifies the gangland girl-group exhibition, a concoction from some sort of fleshy, open-ended Burgess novel. It’s a true debauched British dynamic; anger heard in a local intonation but simple enough to concern you. In the style of certain new wave bands like Squeeze, the twin vocals are sung at different pitches to each other, often one more deadpan and bored. It’s a contriving technique, and some kind of musical equivalent to peer pressure.
Although obvious comparisons can be made to popular female punk bands such as Slant 6 in terms of lyrical content as well as style, Primetime deserve to have this EP looked at individualistically. Their dissection of social anatomy and sexual politics is almost charmingly idiosyncratic. “I want your body not your mind/don’t want to see you all the time” sing frontwomen Lucy Anstey and Claudia Serfaty in this killer hook positioned in the Bukowskian realms of casual sex and trivial relationships. On ‘Tied down’, their debut single, frontwomen Lucy Anstey and Claudia Serfaty sing: “I want your body not your mind/don’t want to see you all the time” ; a killer hook positioned in the Bukowskian realms of casual sex and trivial relationships. ‘Last Night’, the opening track on the EP is essentially all chorus, and is almost humorous in its delivery; “I was at home/but I should’ve gone out last night,” it doesn’t get much simpler. Spoken word ramblings i.e. “at least I didn’t embarrass myself” that nudge its way through the gaps of the song make this a real delight of a track, and prevent it from boredom. It keeps the punchy atmosphere in touch with its Indie pop roots, a nod to the kind of airhead, breezy pop that the likes of Kate Nash produce.
However, ‘Tied Down’ crawls into subordination when ‘Right Track’ kicks off. It is, in simple terms, a fucking good song. The bassline itself is the kind of three note cataclysm that all the best punk anthems have, and sits well with that dark, brooding post punk feel. The drums and the scratchy guitar are not only tribal but the chiefs of some cannibalistic, Amazonian tribe. If the majority of the instrumentation has been drunkenly rendered in this EP, then this is the hangover cure. A stand-out track.
What is arguably the most lyrically interesting number in this EP is ‘Slushy’, the final track. A song with a surreal narrative about a well-prepared thief ‘stealing’ free slushy (likely a reference to the alcoholic slushy they give out at gigs). “I don’t wanna hear it, I’m feeling defiant/I’m going the distance, I just don’t buy it”…the wordplay is Falstaffian and the vocal delivery is at its most anxious and coarse, perhaps an ode to the likes of Siouxsie Sioux. From a lyrical standpoint, ‘Slushy’ performs as the most promising track and if this kind of quality persists, I’m waiting for an album.
Of course, contrary to popular opinion, being cast into the echelons of punk means you face stiff competition when it comes to songwriting. Other female centred bands like ‘The Au Pairs’ remain at the top of many bands of the same ilk, including Primetime, but their self-titled EP is ultimately a real treat. At times you wonder where exactly it lies as a comprehensible piece of work, and although it doesn’t incorporate the best of what it seems to be striving for, this EP doesn’t take itself too seriously at all; and that’s the best thing about it.
