This is a tape from the impressive Wolf Town DIY label. Prior to this review I had never heard of My Life Swimming With Sharks but they were a screamo band from Essex that has since split up and this tape brings together all of their recordings. It turns out that they never made it outside of Southend for any gigs and they were in existence sporadically from 2005 to 2007.
A bleak, building instrumental opens proceedings – it teeters and teeters before exploding into chaos. The harsh, screamed vocals come in on the second track and they are nicely distant and low in the mix. Desperation dominates, particularly through the vocals. The instrumental interludes on this tape are brilliant slices of bleakness too – that is where they really excel. Good stuff and worth a look – apparently only 20 of these tapes were made and I have one of them here so there probably aren’t many left!