UK based ScreamLite Records is one of those labels which you just have to keep a close ear on. Their hunger for fresh and exciting new music is the match to that of a fan meaning attention for their releases is certainly a given here. This month sees the label release the new EP from Newcastle outfit Stolen Dead Music which ScreamLite announced was “the first band to really get our feet tapping in 2019” though what the rest of their bodies were up to we don’t know because the three tracks making up the Penny Drop EP just had us bouncing from head to toe.
Formed in 2017, Stolen Dead Music take the inspiration of bands such as Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer, Black Flag, Pixies, QOTSA, and NiN into a sound which stands distinctly aside of what expectations assume going by that list. It is a blend of alternative and noise rock with numerous other flavours involved sitting uniquely amongst the equally striking enterprise of bands like Japanese Fighting Fish, Houdini, Damn Vandals, and Max Raptor and providing so much to get excited over.
The EP opens up with its title track, Penny Drop initially stroking ears with fuzz loaded riffs before the same guitar begins deviously scything across the senses as the tones of vocalist/guitarist Jimi Trimmer break. Simultaneously the tenaciously strolling beats of drummer Aidan McGill erupt alongside the just as sturdy bassline of Lewis Patterson, guitarist Issak Patternson continuing to tease and tempt alongside the lures of Trimmer. Just as you think you have a handle on the song, it twists into a whole new channel of virulence to manipulate and seduce, never once taking its foot off its imagination and feverish enterprise.
It is an outstanding track and start to the release more than matched by next up Shunt. Rhythms straight away toy with ears and appetite, the guitars getting in on the act with their web of teasing melodic wires. Loaded with hooks and grooves, the band’s rock ‘n’ roll is a devious persuasion and in full lustfulness within the second song. There is a great Pere Ubu-esque whiff to the track at times too which only escalates its call on instincts and sure allegiance to its feral like energy and imagination.
Gallows Humour completes the release, the instrumental simply an irresistible shuffle of salacious melodic hooks and boisterous rhythms casting intimation and addiction with ease.
The Penny Drop EP is in many ways just a teaser to the Stolen Dead Music songbook, the three tracks picked out from their repertoire to mark their link up with ScreamLite Records but a wake up to all of us previously unaware of their potential and thrilling adventure. Anticipation for more is already drooling here.
The Penny Drop EP is out now on ScreamLite Records across numerous stores and @ https://screamliterecords.bandcamp.com/album/stolen-dead-music-penny-drop
https://www.facebook.com/StolenDeadMusic/ https://twitter.com/StolenDeadMusic https://stolendeadmusic.bandcamp.com
Pete RingMaster 13/06/2019
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
Future Crimes follows, opening with the great dirty growl of Cholewa’s bass before contrasting its grumble with the melodic jangle of guitar. As with its predecessor, familiar essences collude with bold fresh endeavour to create an individual character and presence; its melodic and harmonic boisterousness adding to that distinctiveness. There is a sonic mugginess to song and sound too which similarly just lured ears in and though maybe missing the striking hooks of the opener, the track effortlessly held court before Time Traveller offered up its own humid noise cultured breath. Something akin to Dinosaur Jr meets Big Black the song proved increasingly compelling and contagious as it nagged an already eagerly involved appetite.
The snarling air of Ussery’s bass and the intensively swinging beats of Joe Sweat make a matching powerful lure, their driving energy and dark nature as virulent in the following pair of Always and Lock & Key. The first of the two is a ridiculously catchy affair, it’s relentlessly twisting grooves and rhythms a feistily contagious invitation wrapped in magnificent psychedelia/ shoegaze spiced vocals while its successor musically ventures down the same creative avenue to create its own tempting while caressing the senses with romantic melodies as sonic suggestiveness warms with celestial hues. Again there is heaviness and intensity involved which sublimely tempers the bright air and only increases the potency on ears and imagination.
The second song equally has an infectious swing to its presence whilst pursuing a more melodic/alternative rock imagination in its energetic persuasion. As with many songs there is a familiarity to the sound and nature of the song but equally a fresh essence that highlights Chappell-Bates’ own invention, the following 95 another example. It carries an air of the decade of rock spawning its title yet casts a vibrant pop ‘n’ roll flavouring which has the catchiness of modern rock pop flirtation. Its pleasing presence is matched in success by Refugee next, its initial gentle melodic caress growing in weight and intensity as keys shimmer in the background. Soon that brewing intent erupts in a fiery crescendo and chorus before repeating the cycle to engaging effect with Chappell-Bates’ vocals again a potent hue to his songwriting and its colourful realisation. A more subtle but increasingly provocative texture is provided by guest violinist Prue Ward and cellist Anna Scott, their evocative and here melancholic imagination a great spicing colouring a handful of tracks hereon in.
It is a great start more than backed by I Ain’t Fallin’ Again with its punchy rhythms and climactic air of wiry grooves and spicy enterprise. As the first, it too develops an infectious canter which easily coaxes involvement in its anthemic funk lined revelry and continues the album’s rousing star before Running Whiskey turns up the heat again with its rock ‘n’ roll blaze. Featuring Billy F. Gibbons, the song aligns shimmering keys with classic rock ‘n’ roll with a very gentle scent of Thin Lizzy to it.
The band’s sound fuses essences of post-punk, industrial, Synth-pop and post-rock to really simplify its tapestry, with influences arising from bands such as NIN, Interpol, Rammstein, Sonic Youth, and Smashing Pumpkins. It is a fusion which potently gripped attention through the first pair of releases in the four EP project. Both Supplication and Devotion revealed an evolution in the band’s sound with a fresh thick web of textures to that within the band’s album, whilst exploring the theme of love and sex in their destructive form across their songs. That growth has continued with Desolation, its tracks inspired by a look at death and the human condition. As to the timeline of songwriting between the EPs we cannot say but there feels a new maturity to the band’s latest EP which not only seriously ignites ears but offers the potential of even bolder and deeper things ahead.
