Various - New Heavy Sounds Volume One

  by Dixie Ernill

published: 2 / 12 / 2010

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Clubs like their musical nights, and in many cities you don’t have to wait long for evenings - with live music or not - devoted to garage rock, soul, funk, dance, reggae or other popular genres to roll around. New Heavy Sounds, which apparently calls The Queen of Hoxton in London home, likes it loud. Having hosted and played sundry metallurgists, it seems only natural for them to release a collection of tunes from a bevy of British crushers. Starting off with Leeds heavyweights Chickenhawk, you get 19 tracks of chunky guitars, muscular (and occasionally demented) drumming, shouty vocalists and clear evidence that all the good band names have been taken (Bad For Lazarus? Pulled Apart By Horses?). For starters, the collection offers a lot of value for money for anyone living outside Britain, since the vast majority of bands will likely be unfamiliar to them - spacelords Mugstar were the only combo I’d heard of in Canada - and anyone with an interest in the genre should find at least a few avenues worth pursuing. Be warned they aren’t all winners. The squeaky, breathy singing on Castrovalva’s ‘Triceratops’ could be charitably be described as an acquired taste, though the monster fuzz blasts do offer some kind of panacea to suffering ears. Rolo Tomassi’s herky-jerky guitars and organ flourishes make an interesting combination, but the death metal vocals don’t make for a good combination. Mugstar’s sweeping psychedelic ‘Technical Knowledge As a Weapon’ - the tune first made an appearance on a hard to find Nute records single - gets things off on a better foot, and will hopefully send new listeners scurrying for their latest excellent release ‘Limes’. Bo Ningen’s furiously scuzzy feedback and maniac drumming will be of obvious appeal to fans of Japanese freakout combos High Rise and Mainliner (it’s no surprise to hear that the band, though formed in London, is composed of expats from the Land of the Rising Sun) - this is one group whose recorded work I will definitely be seeking out. As for the previously mocked Bad For Lazarus, their ripping guitar intro and vocal-cord-shredding singer anchor one of the album’s top tracks, ‘Fix My Fidget’. It’s quickly followed by another winner. Never mind the sax noodling at the start of Godzilla Black’s ‘The Drought’, the track hurtles from start to finish and will likely provoke spontaneous headbanging in listeners (and yes, there is more Stooges-esque saxophone). XM-3A offer an updated Tony Iommi riff to start off ‘Wolves’, though the guitarist’s tone is a bit more space age, and the vocalist’s teeth-clenched croon offers a change from the other, throatier offerings on the disc. Holy State take a more post-punk turn on ‘Palms’ - and yet more brass! Kong’s ‘Sport‘ starts off like a high-volume post-rock in the vein of Kinski, throws in a bit of shouty vocals and manages to convey a fair bit of actual emotional intensity as it gets screamier and screamier. Buffalo’s ‘Flash of a Photograph’ starts off with a cooly proggy intro and probably should have stuck with it, since the guitar workout that replaces it isn’t as compelling. The dual male and female vocals that pop in and out do provide something engaging to listen. While the track isn’t my favourite listen on the disc, Buffalo sounds like a band charting its own individual course. Bad Guys have obviously been listening to a lot of Kyuss, and their gang vocals on ‘Alcowhore’ are kind of catchy. It’s definitely a number for the sludge-loving EyeHatGod fan is some of us. Invasion also serve up a sludgy intro, but things kick up a notch on ‘In the Midst of Madness’ when the singing does - a surprisingly tuneful female vocalist who could probably front an act in any style she cared. The listener gets to decide if the contrast between fuzz and femme is a hit or a miss. It’s definitely something you don’t hear every day. We Rock Like Girls Don’t might want to change the name - seriously, is this 1962? - but the girls do indeed rock and have a chunky riff or two up their sleeve. Strange News From Another World seem to have nicked Gang of Four’s vocal tics and wedded them to more crash cymbals and guitar chunkery, all strung together by a fairly nimble bassline. It’s post-punk with an improved budget for distortion pedals. Blacklisters finish things off with ‘Belt Party', a track that would have done early Cop Shoot Cop proud, though the vocalist isn’t quite in Tod A.’s League (very few are). While it has a few weak spots, New Heavy Sounds’ first compilation offers an excellent introduction to both the night itself and a slew of bands worthy of further listening.

Track Listing:-

1 Son Of Cern
2 The Big Cut
3 E=MC Hammer
4 Triceratops
5 Unromance
6 Harry Patton
7 Technical Knowledge As A Weapon
8 Maguro
9 Fix My Fidget
10 The Drought
11 Wolves
12 Palms
13 Sport
14 Flash Of A Photograph
15 Alcowhore
16 In The Midst Of Madness
17 Violence
18 There Goes My Ghost
19 Belt Party

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Daniel Cressey
Darren Aston
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