Labels: Rugger Bugger
Review by: Andy Malcolm
The Brocc. Wow, this comp pretty much explains to you how much they rocked if you never realised. I only caught up with them when the “Home” album came out, and now I wish I had cottoned on earlier. On here is every single 7″ they ever did (as far as I know) and it all runs in at around 70 minutes.
It’s kind of staggering that one of the best songs on here, “Neglect It”, is from their 2nd demo tape. Poppy and catchy punk, played like not many other poppy & catchy punk bands play, maybe that’s due to the added ’emotional’ element, or the rasping gravelly vocals. Anyway, you could apply most of those words as a tag to much of this collection, as it’s not quite so downbeat as the album. It’s also a lot rawer. Production was skimped on it seems, back in the day! Not that this detracts, kind of gives it more charm even.
You gotta love “Da-a-a-nce” which is a cover of a song by the Lambrettas apparently – Broccoli do a ska (actually, it’s ‘mod’, but I haven’t a fucking clue what mod is) type song. You need to hear this. And the stuff near the end, like “Defence”, “Chestnut Road” and “Television” is pure and simple brilliance.
Well, it’s a shame this band broke up, as they barely recorded a duff song out of over 30 they committed to record. Nice strike rate. At least the demise has the positive note that it has spawned the promising Shonben. I hope they get a chance to put out over 30 songs. Now that’d be something.