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Another Post-Punk Scorcher
Indie | Tuesday 24th September 2013 | Poppy
You’ve heard the new Arctic Monkeys album, right? Thought so... sorry, I know everyone has. It’s great isn’t it? But you know what you’re sort of missing- choppy guitars.
Not that Arctic Monkeys are terribly good at that... but you know, there’s something a bit dirtier to some of their earlier albums that has been cleaned up for this one. And that’s fine. But if you’re missing a lyrical and original band playing their guitars like they’re wielding a chef’s knife, you need to look back to the late seventies, early eighties. After a heavy night out, punk finally got up and went to bed, leaving a dry patch in the dew for something completely new to sit down in. And it's not just the Smiths and Joy Division, but also Television, Magazine, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Gang of Four, and Josef K. But among all of those, the one you’re least likely to have heard of are Josef K, the Edinburgh band that had the urgency of Joy Division and the meth-lab guitar riffs of Gang of Four.
Their one and only studio album, Entomology, is a miraculous sprint through Oxford Street, a satisfying smash of bat-and-ball, and falling down the stairs and righting yourself just before it hurts. It has all the energy you want but still makes you feel like a clever bastard for putting it on.
This song is like being squirted with a water gun as you come out of your house on an October morning - not unlike this one below - then realising it was by your best mate. And... it has horns:
This is a slower one, and one which King Krule has recently listed as one of the songs that influenced his new record. It’s got an absolute python of a bass line.
Poppy Walker
