Labels: Solemn Records
Review by: Alex Hannan
Aside from the title and label info, grainy mugshot images and pictures of dental records are all that adorn the tape sleeve of this demo from Galway punks OVERBITE, and the 5 tracks inside are rendered in super noisy lo-fi, the whole thing being more of a blurred snapshot after an evening on the cough syrup than a precision portrait. It’s likely recorded live to tape in one blast, and has got a satisfyingly nasty feel to it – drums are most prominent in the mix, then mush-mouthed distorted vocals, with guitar and bass providing a generalized background churn. Howling mic feedback punctuates every vocal line.
Opener “well” starts things off in sludgy fashion with a rolling, bulldozing rhythm, slow but propulsive, simple vocal bursts riding the top of it. Guitar and bass keep it simple and brutish, nothing fancy or soloistic. It’s over in 1 minute 11. “thanks for everything” ups the tempo for a mid-paced tupa-tupa punky number. We’re moving into the kind of area where the slower CRAZY SPIRIT and BONE AWL songs might meet, sinister but basic creepy crawly punk. The move into double-time that they pull off several times in this song never gets tired. My favourite of the tape. The next two songs share a broadly similar sound, fourth track “problem” slowing things down a touch: both suffer from the blown out recording, tending to blur together because of the lack of definition in the low to mid-range – any interesting details in the vocals or guitars just get swallowed by the ooze and there’s not enough going on in the structure to overcome the monotone texture that results. Final track “control” is a return to the slower, sludgier sound in 3s of the opener – a style better suited to the murky production, and slowing at the end to a harsh crawl.
The area they’re staking out is interesting – slow to mid-paced bleakness drawing on lo-fi raw punk as well as sludge – and as an intro to the band this works well. I think a bit more textural experimentation and variety in the songwriting would suit them, following the lead of “thanks for everything”, and balancing the rawness with a bit more definition in the next recording wouldn’t hurt.