Welsh noise-rock
I caught This Is Wreckage at this year's Swn Festival in Cardiff and live, the trio from the Welsh valleys were loud enough to make your ears ring - with earplugs in. Thankfully on record you can adjust the volume, but on the flip side it can take some of the punch from these tracks if you don't crank it up. Drawing influence from some of my favourite noise-rock bands of the 80s and 90s (Big Black and The Jesus Lizard et al) This Is Wreckage were a band I certainly had to check out live, and having now got my hands on their debut full length album, I've discovered that on many levels they succeed in producing a similarly nasty wash of noise on record too.
With help from loud, dirty and loose strung base, heavy hit drums and husky vocals, they turn out some cracking tunes to head-bang to. Take the fantastic opener One Last Speedstar which starts with a scuzzy, grungy guitar riff before exploding into a great (almost melodic) tune; the vocal lines verge on sing along, yet the bass thunders along and the layer of fuzz over it all gives you a headache if it's turned up too loud - which of course you wont be able to stop doing. Cracking stuff.
Moving further into the record Tokens For the Bunny Booths' slower pace creates a dreamy yet eerie feel; dark and moody with some really excellent bass riffage thundering away in the background whilst the danceable beats of 2+2=Bastard are offset with discordant guitar. This is a brilliant tune, one of the best on the record, mixing the nasty with the very listenable to great effect. A solid record and one well worth checking out.