Pi$$er – Carved Up For Yuks

By RingMaster Review on February 16, 2021 • ( 0 )

Not content with already providing this year with one formidable temptation as one half of Körd Värld, an EP you can explore elsewhere on The RR, the irrepressible James Domestic has weaved one unmissable proposition in the shape of the new Pi$$er 12” Mini LP. Carved Up For Yuks is one glorious incitement of the UK punk’s firmly established unique sound, one we already know as a twisted and lustily unpredictable pleasure but breaching even greater aberrant fertility within its experimentation.

Featuring drummer Charlie Claesson (Anti-Cimex / The Partisans / Wolfhour / Körd Värld/ Vengeance By Proxy), guitarist Bri Doom (Doom / Sore Throat / Blackstar Lazarus), saxophonist Eddie O’Toole (The Shitty Limits / The Filaments / Beat The Red Light / Personnel), bassist/organist Rhodes (The Domestics / Hobopope / Unicorn Fart Sugar) and guitarist Matt Woods (Revenge Of The Psychotronic Man / Dissidents / English Dogs) alongside Domestic (The Domestics / Bring The Drones / Tokyo Lungs / Körd Värld/ Dis-Tank), Pi$$er made a striking debut with the verily woven hardcore adventure of the Wretched Life EP in 2019 and established their sound’s true depth of imagination and uniqueness with its successor, Crushed Down to Paste, the following year. The latter was a record which truly ignited the instincts and passion for off-kilter unorthodoxy, an appetite now truly fed by Carved Up For Yuks.

The mini album see Domestic take selected tracks from those two EPs and tear them apart before rebuilding them like a musical Frankenstein. We have a natural lack of spirit for remixes on the whole at The RR but Carved Up For Yuks is no collection of the like. Domestic has, as the records title echoes, carved up songs until only their beating hearts are left whole than rebuilt and re-stitched the creative flesh around them layer by layer to breed new and proposals just as compelling as the originals and in certain moments maybe even greater incitements.

Any trepidation from knowing these were reworked songs, not that there was much such our addictive to Crushed Down to Paste, it was instantly squashed once Nazi Rhythm set things in motion. Its rhythmic shuffle and distorted flames of guitar had us bouncing and hooked, Domestic’s raw dub kissed tones and the ever captivating hues of O’Toole’s sax sealing the deal. The tracks manipulative dance breaks midway, re-igniting its addictive hold and intent with greater punk distrust and volatility. It is a track of two halves and both pure orchestration of movement and addiction.

Piss Bazaar follows with an initial distorted coaxing which soon becomes embroiled in dub invaded d-beat textures and anomalous restructuring. As its predecessor, the rhythmic influence and exploitation of ears and body is inescapable, the tapestry of sounds and temptation around it engineering the imagination’s equally compelled participation. Even so there is still no hiding the track and release’s punk rock heart and breeding even within an exploration which is kind of like a warped union of X Ray Spex, Essential Logic and Zu but really unlike anything; to be fair a full description which applies to Pi$$er and their releases as a whole.

15 Pecent Dub Time rushes the senses straightaway, sax and guitars creating a rapacious cyclone driven by the vocal predation of Domestic as skittish rhythms again create an enveloping contagion while Dub Won’t Repent is a less forceful but no less virulent gospel of creativity and spite. It defies anyone not to submit their bodies to its machinations and thoughts to a contemplation taking on new aspects in its proposal and design.

Jazz Wasps was an enthralling dark, disturbing and quarrelsome introduction to Crushed Down to Paste and now redesigned as Jazz Funk Wasps provides the start of the B-side of Carved Up For Yuks with an infection soaked dance but one as tenebrific as its counterpart and at times far more corrosively compelling.

A Wretched Dub teasingly taunts in sound as it leads ears towards the springing of punk rock antipathy which subsequently soaks the senses. It is absorbing and corrosive, a mix of seduction and acerbic discontent woven from the craft behind the original and the new collage made from its parts by Domestic.

The closing incitement comes from More Petrol, More Light, More Dancing and nine minutes of a sonic jigsaw which as the pieces fall into place only becomes more fascinating and compulsive, in turn it providing an invasive and enthralling end to a spellbinding affair.

Carved Up For Yuks is a must for Pi$$er fans and those with a want for the imposingly unique and indeed confrontational; be warned though addiction could break out.

Carved Up For Yuks is released on 12” vinyl 26th February via KIBOU RECORDS (UK) / NO TIME (USA) / TOXIC WOTSIT (UK) / TNS RECORDS (UK) / SICK WORLD RECORDS (NZ) / CIMEX RECORDS (SWE) with pre-ordering available now.

Pete RingMaster 11/02/2021