For me, Upset The Rhythm are turning into a kind of post-modern 4AD or Too Pure, the sort of labels on which you could take a punt and pretty much guarantee that what you had purchased would be good. So far, UTR have had an excellent hit rate, always managing to find the kind of interesting, whimsical and unique acts that make the listener sit back and pay attention.
There is a fair degree of surrealism in new signings Buffet Lunch, but there is a warmth to their vignettes on their debut LP, The Power Of Rocks, which comes across well; and considering they count friend of Freq Andrew Doig amongst their compadres, this is no great surprise. There is something about their approach to tuning which brought to mind US mavericks Polvo, but they would be perfect for those people who thought Polvo too American.
The guitars twinge and twang, warping their sound as the soft, melty bass and clippy, clattery drums weave a spell around a vocalist pleasantly amused by everything he finds around him. There is a soft, squidgy clarinet on opener “Red Apple Happiness” and it wanders arm in arm with a lazy, loping riff. The guitar is almost a musical equivalent of the voice and there is the fabulous tang of intoxication, wide-eyed wonder and warmth. It is all rubbery and odd, with the guitar often the random element in an already uneven sea of a song, weaving in and out of the loose structure. It is reminiscent of the kind of maverick sound of the likes of Stump, but sometimes with an almost childlike joy. “Pebbledash”, with its careening mantra of “Mondeo Man” with shout outs for obscure towns like Walsall and Workington revels in its eclectic Britishness. The entire band seems to join in with the groaning choruses, but the main vocalist Perry O’Bray has a delivery that is part speech, part singing and all amazement. At points, he sounds like Lawrence from Felt if he had ever stopped to look outside and revel in the joys of day-to-day existence.The tunings are definitely odd in places and have hints of African high life here and there, that lovely trebly pitch and chiming lightness. “Do you believe in the power of rocks?” they ask, and from what is shown here it would be hard to say no. As a complete counterpoint, each side of the LP ends with a song sung by their friend Jayne Dent, and here the pace slows and the vibe changes; “These Times” is a Pram-like Casio-based underwater lullaby, while “Ashley’s New Haircut” has a hypnotic quality that is both disarming and far gentler than what preceded it.
Maybe there is a touch of the Cardiacs in their constant quest for subverting the form of indie pop, or however their style might be described. Sparkling, dizzying bedroom visionaries they may be, but with songs questioning the wisdom of wearing two hats or using what may well be a sound stolen from dodgy TV show Catchphrase (you’ll know the sound I mean), they run rings around the listener, engaging them in the way a drunken friend might drag you onto the dancefloor towards the end of a particularly good wedding.The bass wiggles like a startled snake, the drummer is only too happy to introduce cowbells and nobody is afraid of repetition or fun, and fun is in abundance on The Power Of Rocks. What a great first album. Dive in with lovely orange vinyl before they are all snapped up.
-Mr Olivetti-
