Millie Manders And The Shut Up – Shutup EP

By RingMaster Review on October 3, 2018 • ( 0 )

It rapaciously rattles as it tenaciously rolls, aggressively snarls as it leaps around with viral infectiousness. No this is not a riddle but the sound of Millie Manders And The Shut Up on their new EP, Shutup; a proposition which had us instinctively drooling even before the first track of the inescapably mouth-watering release reached its finale.

London based, Millie Manders And The Shut Up stepped out in 2015, the band emerging from Millie’s solo career sharing ear grabbing acoustic enterprise which itself sprung from varied previous projects including Second Sense. With The Shutup around her vocal dexterity and prowess on the ukulele and alto saxophone, the band creates a punk rock bred incitement eagerly embracing varied flavours from pop punk to ska to aggression loaded alternative rock. Similarly though, there are moments certainly within the Shutup EP, our introduction to the band, when essences of styles such as swing, new wave and R&B more than tease. It is truly an appetite rousing crossover flavour which with hindsight shows just why the first two EPs from the band, The Free-P and Obsession Transgression, were so warmly welcomed and praised by fans and media alike and now why, finding its fullest most adventurous character yet, it is a sound which seeds one of the year’s most exciting offerings.

The EP opens up with Right To Life, a shimmer of guitar caressing the immediately striking presence and voice of Millie as the song rises slowly but purposively to its feet. Its sepia jazz kissed sound is alluring enough, Lewis Slater’s guitar winding up the temptation, but it is just a smouldering kiss before the boisterous carnival of its stomp to come. A flick of its hips and the spontaneous burst of dancing flames from the trumpet of George Alan and the tenor sax of Dom Walker spring the track into contagious urgency; ska punk instincts entangling its more spiky rock endeavour as the track bounds along like a mix of Sonic Boom Six, No Doubt, and The Selector. Yet even with those easy to offer references, song and sound swiftly proves its own uniqueness with Millie herself vocally as individual as they come but with a great whiff of Brody Dalle in league with Imelda May and Pauline Black.

The track is superb but instantly rivalled by its successors for favourite track honours here starting with Brave. The imposing ticking of a clock incites the muscular swings of drummer Alessandro Vitiello and as quickly the magnetic tones of Millie. Slipping into a slightly more restrained canter compared to its predecessor initially, the song carries a portentous air; an inviting threat which erupts with fiery blasts of brass searing its chorus placed expulsion. As with all tracks, the body was quickly manipulated by the captivating antics of the song, the imagination and appetite as quickly seduced and enslaved before the equally irresistible Lollipops launched its own compelling escapade. Again Vitiello’s beats thump away with relish and poise as the even grumpier bass of Matt Munford twangs with tenacity, the guitar adding its attitude lined riffery to the virulent slice of punk rock.

New single, One That Got Away, completes the creative scheming and magnificence. The coaxing of the fuzz lined guitar alone offers intoxicating hooks but every aspect of the song from rhythms, brass, and vocals breed their own distinctive barbs to be hooked and aroused by. It might be punk in its heart but as all tracks, it is pure rock ‘n’ roll; manna to the ear and instincts.

Millie Manders has been sharing the goodness for many years now but the Shutup EP is surely the moment attention explodes around the band; so just do what it says and get down to some serious inhibition free rocking.

The Shutup EP is out now @ https://milliemanders.bandcamp.com/album/shutup