Bradford Bulls
Dolphins are some fairly fresh faced refuseniks coming straight outta Yorkshire with debut From Pickerel to Flipper. Their sound is a grab-bag of thrashing punk and hardcore with enough tunes and healthy cynicism thrown in to differentiate them from the noise bands that deal purely in distorted rackets and straight faces.
The punning title of this record says it all: Dolphins veer from sharp toothed abrasion to wry commentary. It is an English accented take on the DIY sounds and iconoclasm of the Touch & Go roster and not a bad one at that. What with Unsane's return to action this year we've already been treated to the best of this genre and Dolphins buzz their way through ten tracks of similarly uncompromising fare.
Opening track Kingdom Come shouts out to all the provincial miscreants: "Out with the old & in with the new/We must die cause we're not like you." Metallic edged riffs meet what sounds like some spoons on Indifference and they are surely due a revival - it's been 18 years since Soundgarden's Spoonman for chrissakes.
Generally Dolphins are drudging through the streets on From Pickerel to Flipper, defiantly on the outside looking in - "Get over here kiss my boots/Nothing to gain when your head's in a noose" as Haydn Wilcox sings on Hard Times, Hard Lines and really puts the boot in with Parasite: "Parasite - full of spite. You're beneath me, you're weak. You're a slave for me. I am the world; don't fuck with me". The trio aren't above taking themselves down a peg though, as The Fall style posturing of Serious Important Song demonstrates with Wilcox doing his best Mark E. Smith. This doesn't last; however, as the delicate and bruising melancholy of Still Falls The Rain (Bradford) soon follows.
To finish there's some old fashioned quiet/loud dynamics tracking the raging small town blues refrain of "the walls are caving in" on Caved In. The walls aren't caving in - that's already happened to Dolphins. This is the sound of angry young Britain, this is their dissatisfaction and it's clever and determined.