Audio Nasty
From Fulchi’s Zombie Flesh Eaters, to Grau’s The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue, to Deodato’s Cannibal Holocaust and even to Raimi’s The Evil Dead; the ‘video nasties’ banned by the Obscene Publications act and their consequent releases/ outright bans has made an indeterminable affect on film history.
Taking their name from the collective term for controversial cult classics, north London based outfit Video Nasties share little with the grisly, blood splattered celluloid they are named after. With no sense of audible brutality, no talk of dismembering bodies and no palpable sense of knee trembling excitement, they lack the nauseating punch to the guts that the aforementioned films have in spades (bloodied of course).
Musically treading a very conservative line - indie with a dash of subdued punk; the name taunts with such grand expectation of heart fluttering excitement, but the music falls a short of these heady hopes. Although perfectly amiable on the ears, they certainly haven’t created anything memorable or anything which would make Mary Whitehouse turn in her grave.
Whilst ‘video nasties’ kicked up quite a fuss in the seventies and eighties, whether their namesakes will make the same dent on music, as their filmic counterparts on popular culture, seems unlikely with this offering.