She Made Me Do It – Scorched

By RingMaster Review on February 6, 2020 • ( 0 )

She Made Me Do It is a band which weaves compelling adventures not only in sound and the web of flavours making up its character but also from the rich shadows within the depths of both and the duo’s imagination. Across a host of releases and tracks it has provided a kaleidoscopic landscape of intimation and contagion which has maybe been no more compelling than within new EP, Scorched. Its five tracks share intense enterprise and rich drama, the release a bold venture into the outfit’s creative psyche and one eagerly tapping into the cinematic conjuring of the listener.

The successor to their acclaimed Drenched EP, Scorched finds the twosome of Shaheena Dax (Rachel Stamp) and Will Crewdson (Rachel Stamp, Adam Ant, Scant Regard, The Selecter, Bow Wow Wow, Flesh For Lulu) infesting their alternative electronic rock with the richest tapestry of genre varied threads to escape the London based pair yet. Theirs has been a proposition always embracing the ripest essences of punk, new wave, post punk but the new encounter borders on the ravenous in its seizing of fresh diversity.

Scorched opens with the band’s new single, Love’s Demise bounding in on a tide of voracious rock riffs and swinging rhythms before the swiftly joining tones of Dax show just as much hunger in their melodic enticement. Crewdson’s guitar continues to snarl as its infectious nature aligns with that of Dax, hard and punk rock spices taunting as electronic fingers tease in the riotous but controlled stomp.

The rousing start is only accentuated by Fun and Games, a track which lit up the airwaves with its uncaging as one of last year’s best singles. A calm but keenly coaxing electronic pulse dances in ears first; it’s subdued but apparent skittishness soon surrounded by a contagion of air splattering beats and attention burrowing hooks, it all courted by the delicious dark bassoon-esque grumble of the bass. The infection loaded stroll is soon equipped with greater temptation as Dax brings her perpetual craft and captivation, alt pop and punk insisting on uniting with the track’s rock instincts to dig deeply and relentlessly under the skin.

Throughout both, shadows lurk if in a subdued state but now flood the sounds within the EP’s stunning third track and our senses. It is a cover of The Cure’s Three Imaginary Boys, a slice of already undeniable greatness given a whole new breath of drama and potency. Crewdson and Dax draw out the anxiety and tension of the original, increasing both as they escalate the post punk heart of the original. It is pure drama, emotions caught in a dense spiral of apprehension and inescapable contagion as the band equip the song with a cinematically claustrophobic air soaked in an emotional cold war amidst a crepuscular soundscape.

The equally exceptional Poison Aura follows, it too a dark senses consuming address of ears and thoughts even with the golden glow of Dax’s voice an absorbing light across the track’s caliginous tone and post punk nurtured landscape. The encounter ignited the imagination as much as ears as again a theatre of intimation provided a palette of suggestion so easy for the imagination to paint with.

For all the thick ravenous shadows the band breeds, each track is a surge of greedy catchiness too, the band’s pop instincts fuelling the heaviest dark and equally the most boisterous light, final track Fatal Confidante epitomising all in its esurient virulence and pop punk featured tenacity. As much as the EP’s tracks infest ears and imagination with the creator’s craft and fascination, all invade feet and body with a matching zeal, the last song on offer unscrupulous in getting the listener bouncing.

With a cover any band on a similar endeavour will have to truly go some to match and a striking quartet of inimitable and unique She Made Me Do It goodness, the sensational Scorched confirms the duo as one of the UK’s most exciting and imaginative encounters; one we have already been enslaved by and do not apologise for urging all to check out with even greater lust.

The Scorched EP is out now, available @ https://shemademedoit.bandcamp.com/album/scorched-e-p