What does it sound like?:
They’re pretty enfant terrible aren’t they the Fat Whites? That name, the Nazi and serial-killer referencing song titles – Goodbye Goebbels, Lebensraum, Duce, When Shipman Decides. Well-documented drug abuse and general bad behaviour. ‘Controversial videos’. It’s almost like they don’t need to actually write any music. But here’s Songs for Your Mother with ten tracks of proper music stuff that The Quietus really liked.
So will it send us running and screaming to the hills? Not really – opener Whitest Boy on the Beach hits a nice krautrock rhythm, and as a whole the musical world is squarely that of early eighties industrial: Foetus, early Nick Cave, Pyschic TV and some bizzarro. The vocals are on the whole buried deep in the mix and the production seems to opt for the ‘its ironic right – we’re using crap instruments and the Casio drum machine on its most Bontempi setting’ a la Art Brut, Denim and so on. If one figure hovers over it all its that of early Mark E Smith – the spacy, mystical MES of Witch Trials, Dragnet and Elastic Man. They have a track called I am Mark E Smith. Well yes you are.
Stand out tracks are Goodbye Goebbels which could come off an early Nick Cave lp, Satisfied with its insistent chant could come from a late sixties Stone LP and When Shipman Decides – the one track that seems to lay down an original musical world – which is propelled by a jaunty brassband-style feel.
What does it all *mean*?
Is it listenable too? Yes, and bore a second listen. Does it escape its influences? Not really. If you were 18 and had never heard Hot Horse, Godstar or Sick Man then it smells like teen spirit all right.
Goes well with…
Piles of rotting meat, UFOs over london, satanic death cults, collapse of western civilization (they would like to think).
Release Date:
Might suit people who like…
Thin people dressed in black.
You’re absolutely correct – it does bear a second listen (and a third and fourth, and probably a sporadic fifth).
The other prime influence I found going on here was Goldfrapp and Portishead.
I’m wavering, but I might actually invest real money in this one.
Oh. I thought Moseley said it was a bore on second listen and switched off.
I like early MES but not the other reference points. I’ll pass. Thank you for the review.
I think I’m somewhere between the two. I liked it on second listening, suggesting it’s got some staying power, but not quite enough to part with 10 emusic credits when there’s viers/lang, dj shadow, aphex twin, metronomy, roisin murphy this month.
Didn’t really like this at first but persisted at its one of my favourites of the year now. A sludgy, slow burn of an album. All the references above apply but I also get a feel of Ozzie Black Sabbath.
The sludgy first album Sabbath a definite reference point.
I love this record. I’ve probably played it more than anything else I’ve bought this year (yes, including Blackstar). They are also brilliant live. Their gig at the Bierkeller here in Bristol was one of the best I’ve been to in years.
Side project The Moonlandingz are pretty good live too.