Gaffa Tape Sandy – Hold My Hand, God Damn It

By RingMaster Review on June 18, 2024 • ( 0 )

When we first came across UK outfit GAFFA TAPE SANDY courtesy of their irresistible single Smart Dressed Guy in 2016, they were just emerging from the Bury St Edmunds music scene, one that had also given birth to the likes of HORSE PARTY, THE MACHISMO’S, and THE VITAMINS around that time. Since then the trio has released a host of ear grabbing singles, adventure bound EPs and based themselves within the ever inspiring music landscape of Brighton. Whether they have earned the recognition and status within the indie scene that they deserve could have been debated but now with the release of their debut album, Hold My Hand, God Damn It, lofty heights for both are assured.

The release presents a collection of tracks that leap from the speaker to take the listener on a voracious ride of adventure and enterprise like never before with the band. Certainly the likes of the Spring Killing and Family Mammal EPs have ignited the imagination and sent the inhibitions running of a great many, as with numerous singles earning just acclaim yet everything before is eclipsed by the masterful manipulation and invention of Hold My Hand, God Damn It.

The band craft an indie rock sound that is bred in garage rock and punk inclinations, a proposal venturing a landscape akin to an alignment of THE VICTORIAN ENGLISH GENTLEMENS CLUB, BLACK WIRE and THE RIPPS but only courting and crafting GAFFA TAPE SANDY individuality. The trio of vocalist/guitarist Kim Jarvis, vocalist/bassist Catherine Lindley-Neilson, and drummer Robin Francis, GAFFA TAPE SANDY have again linked up with their long-time producer George Perks (Wargasm, Enter Shikari, Skindred) for Hold My Hand, God Damn, recording the majority of it towards the end of 2022. It is a record that examines and opens up on personal situations from within the band and on broader societal issues seeded over the past few years but also one to have real fun with too.

Hold My Hand, God Damn opens with the outstanding Body, a song that instantly jumped into predacious liveliness and provoking our eager hollering in tandem with Kim. Its pop punk instincts surge through ears from start to finish with Catherine’s melodic vocal incitement adding to the track’s eager manipulation and the addictiveness of its raucous uproar.

Such a start can often we followed by a slight anti-climax but here it only sets the tone for things to come with Scrapbook swinging in on an indie jangle and weaving a web of hooks around virulent rhythmic incitement and Catherine’s compelling tones. Ebbing and flowing in its adrenaline fuelled attack but an inspiriting arousal from start to finish the track again had the speakers bouncing before Dead 2 Me swung and jabbed at the senses with pugilistic art punk endeavour. It too had us hook line and sinker in quick time, our involvement and addiction shared with lust such the bands creative cunning and enterprise around its emotional dispute.

Evil is next up, again plucking the strings of eager attention with its low-key but potent guitar and vocal start. There is a restrained energy to it compared to its predecessors yet a song as virulent in energy and punk ‘n’ roll contagion and with a hue that not for the first or last time across the release reminded of the manic prowess of MY RED CELL while Get Off brought funk exposed indie rock to proceedings to command another show of physical and vocal participation from all those around and before it.

A noise punk voracity escapes from the hook bound Split next, its punk rock breeding taking no prisoners with its holler and bringing flying limbs to the fore in league with its ravaging dance while Devour, after the brief but seductive escape of Rosemary, set the stage for another bout of lusty involvement and pleasure. A fusion of noise and punk rock with a great SONIC BOOM SIX air to certain moments, the song snarls and trespasses as much as it infectiously incites, the energy given to it in enjoyment given time to recover by Medicine; well at least by its opening moments as the song soon reveals its own athletic dexterity in attack and feral catchiness as Kim and Catherine’s vocals magnetically unite within the bedlam.

Energy shares the personal intimacy of its singers with another animated stroll bound in emotive barbs and frisky enterprise yet a song that feels as celebratory as it is cathartically honest and one that again got under the skin to pull our strings like a puppeteer before Holding Hands serenaded ears and thoughts with melodic beauty, the song a calm before the emotive storm of Queasy, a track that rose from the feelings ignited by the tragic murder of Sarah Everard. It is a slowly dawning tempest of a proposal bringing a conflict of raw sonic tension with melodic beauty and an album closing track that had thought and the imagination as bound in its presence as ears.

Ending in striking and dramatic fashion, we can only describe Hold My Hand, God Damn It as a stunning collection of explosive and striking songs; each proving as addictive as the other and that GAFFA TAPE SANDY are ripe for serious acclaim and attention.

Hold My Hand, God Damn It is out now via Alcopop! Records; available @ https://gaffatapesandy.bandcamp.com/album/hold-my-hand-god-damn-it