Labels: Sell You
Review by: Gareth L
It felt a bit weird examining the reviews that accompanied this record. Unsurprisingly they were mostly positive but on closer inspection they were all almost a decade old. It’s a bit like coming to a job interview with 8 years missing from the recent experience section of a CV. ‘So what have you been doing all this time?’ That being said, this LP could easily have been recorded in 2003. Or 1993. Or even 1983. The production, vocals and song structures don’t exactly scream cutting edge, The In Out instead rely on simple repetitive riffs and drum patterns, scratchy lo-fi guitars and distorted vocals. So it feels kind of scruffy and hip, although they probably don’t care about that – they have a song about an opportunistic line cook for pete’s sake (‘That’s a spicy meatball for you…waiter, there’s a hair in my stew’).
It’s this overarching feeling of detachment that makes this album what it is. The band seem content to do what they want, which is making grumpy, jagged post punk with an unexpected surf edge (exposed most fully in the excellent ‘Pearson Custom Raincoat’). The vinyl version of this is limited to 200 so listen to their Bandcamp page and do what
you will. Music for overcast weekend mornings and bunking off work.