Labels: self released
Review by: james pacanowski
Nice surprise this one. There seems to be no shortage of this sort of female-fronted lo-fi overly-hyphenated punk-pop going around right now but that is no bad thing. If you’re at all into Weed Hounds or Little Lungs, then lucky you because you’ve got yourself a pretty good frame of reference as this sits somewhere in between the two. The vocals tend more towards Weed Hounds’ propensity for boy-girl mumbling and navel-gazing, but the rest punches the way that Little Lungs do, guitars frothing away and drums hurrying things along impatiently while the bass bubbles in and out. Occasionally they throw in a bit of keyboard and it’s a nice addition to the sound, particularly on ‘planet courtney’ where it throbs in the background threatening to explode (although it never does) or on closer ‘end of days’ where it screeches along in pleasingly whistle-able fashion. It doesn’t outstay its welcome which is nice, with most songs flailing drunkenly in at under 2 minutes. The whole thing buzzes like the aftermath of a few beers, swirling dizzily about for a pleasant 20 minutes and not really worrying about how messy it is. Definitely worth a punt if The Raincoats or Black Tambourine are your bag, or if you ever wished PENS would actually write a real song.